Servitude
by Sinvisigoth
Summary: Merle is saved from the roof and the butterfly effect of his return to the group effects everything that follows, creating a world where you live and die by the sword. What Walking Dead could have been with Merle playing a leading role and, most importantly, not dying. Story diverges from canon straight after Merle is abandoned on the roof in Atlanta. Merle/OC pairing.
1. Chapter 1

****Reworked 12 Nov after posting chapter four as I wasn't happy with the quality of the writing. Italics, with the exception of the occasional bit within proper dialogue, are Merle's inner voice/thoughts.**

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. Romance and smut, not necessarily in that order. This was going to be a one-shot, but I figure it's probably going to run to about three or four chapters this size. I loved that in Roxee Rosey's story Something Good Can Work, she wrote Merle as a good man, a worthy man. He rocked in ways I hadn't even considered, and all written beautifully. So she's completely to blame for inspiring me to write some Merle :D If you haven't checked out her story btw, don't miss out, go find it now! Playlist for this song can be found on Youtube. My user name is the same there and the playlist is called servitude.  
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**Songs for this chapter:**

**Calexico & Marianne Dissard - the Ballad of Cable Hogue**

**Katie Gray - Set free**

**Chapter 01**

Merle strained against the metal bar, pulling the handcuffs taut with an unending string of screamed curses. It didn't budge no matter how hard he pulled, but unfortunately it was beginning to feel like his hand might. Finally he gave up. He could hear the roll of an engine as the others drove away from the building.

_You're gonna pay for this, Officer Friendly, you just see if you don't. Goddamn gutless motherfuckers_.

He slumped and tucked his face into the crook of his arm. The heat was making it difficult to keep his thinking straight enough to figure his way out of the cuffs. He muttered to himself for several minutes, only going quiet when he heard a rustle somewhere on the other side of the roof. He'd seen a huge tarpaulin there when they came up onto the roof and assumed it was making the noise. Or rather that the person who'd been hiding behind it was.

He didn't have time to wonder if it was a walker because the steps that came toward him were quick and deliberate. He looked up, squinting to see the face of the person who leaned over him, the sun directly behind their head creating a halo so bright it eclipsed their features. As they stood up, blocking out the glare, he saw a woman in her early thirties with long blonde hair that curled wildly.

_Oh look it's the bimbo at the end of the world_.

Her figure was obscured by the large, shapeless men's shirt that she wore over baggy shorts, but her legs were lean. She looked at him without speaking, grey eyes inscrutable and unwavering.

"What in hell are you looking at, you dumb whore? Get me out of these." He rattled the cuffs. Her face shifted, looking bored. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

"If I'm a dumb whore what does that make the kind of dickless wonder that goes and gets himself chained to a pipe in walker territory because he can't keep his ignorant mouth shut?" She sounded educated and unafraid.

"I'll show you dickless, just you wait, sugartits. When I get out of these I'll fuck you into the middle of next month." He strained to grab her with his free hand but she stepped coolly out of reach. _God-frikken-damnit she has good reflexes_.

"Close, but not exactly what I had in mind. And how are you planning on getting out of those?" She followed his gaze and wordlessly kicked the hacksaw twenty feet away.

"You bitch. You godless fucking cooze, what in hell did you do that for?" He pummelled his feet impotently against the roof beneath him.

"I just wanted to see the look on your face. And I imagined it might interrupt your natural eloquence with a moment of blessed silence." Damned if that little crooked smile didn't go straight to his dick.

"My whut?" He frowned. He thought he may have just been insulted for the second time but he couldn't be sure.

"Your verbal dexterity, Mr…?"

"Dixon. Merle Dixon," he chuffed belligerently.

"Well, Merle - can I call you Merle? - you certainly have a way with words. So far you've managed to point out that I'm female, complimented my breasts - which are spectacular by the way, and called me an atheist. All of which are correct. The only errors you made were assuming that I'm of low intelligence and get paid for sex. I earned my PhD shortly before things went to complete and utter fuck, and, honey, whores do it for money; I do it because I like it."

"You think you're so fucking smart." He grumbled, not looking at her.

"So does MIT." He could hear her amusement.

"Well brains'll only git you so far in this new world of ours. What were you doing up here anyw…wait…what do you mean 'close'?" _Let me the fuck out of these and I'll get close alright_.

She only raised an eyebrow and looked away.

"You said 'close' when I said I'd fuck you into the middle of next month. What did you mean by 'close'?" He wasn't sure whether to feel confused or turned on or pissed off so he settled for all three.

"I was looking for something, but really, I don't think you're suitable." She shook her head in disappointment, or maybe remorse; he couldn't tell which.

"Why in hell not?" He was suddenly a lot more curious about his perceived failings than finding out what she was looking for.

"I was looking for someone with a little more…civility. Pretty much the opposite of everything I've heard out of your mouth since you and your friends came up on the roof. And honestly, I don't think you would physically be able to do what I want." He took a moment to digest the second part. It was either a third insult or an honest assumption.

"Why?" She didn't answer him straight away but squatted down on her haunches, bringing her face closer to look at him in earnest. _What in hell do you want, sugartits, just tell me and…oh that's nice, keep doing that_. He felt soft fingertips tracing the frown lines on his forehead, before the backs of those same fingertips rubbed roughly over the fine stubble on his jaw.

"Because what I want demands a level of understanding and experience. And I don't think you've ever been kissed." She stood up straight at his shocked indrawn breath.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he roared. "I've kissed hundreds of women. I ain't some kinda backwoods virgin fer Christ's sake."

"Exactly." The crooked smile was back and she held his gaze when she spoke again. "You've kissed women. But I'd bet my right arm you've never been kissed. Sweet and tender, slow and yearning, like you're the only thing filling her heart every waking moment." She placed her hand flat on his chest directly over his heart.

_Want_.

"Like she'd _ache_ with missing you if she so much as walked into the next room. Like she could see you, beat and angry, weary to the bone with everything you feel written on your face and still see the best man she's ever known." He was ashamed of the noise of absolute longing that left his throat.

"That's not real." He shook his head.

"It is." She said softly.

She knelt back down closer front of him and palmed his cheek in one hand. His eyes closed involuntarily and something in his chest all of a sudden felt far too big. _Oh God, what if she's right?_

"I think you talk to women the way you do because you don't like yourself very much, and if you'd ever had what I just described that wouldn't be the case. If you'd ever had that there'd be some part of you that knew you were worth something, and that a woman could be worth something, too. That's the knowledge I need, that's what makes you imperfect for what I want." Standing, she tilted her head accusingly.

_Lady, there ain't a single sorrowful bastard on this green Earth that ain't as imperfect as it's possible to be_.

"You never did say what that was." He was sulking. Even not knowing what it was, he didn't like the idea that she found him wanting, or that she'd managed to infer so accurately what he himself had always been denied.

"No I didn't. It's pointless. I'll keep looking. Maybe one of the men who were here earlier would do." She snorted delicately at the thought.

_Ha. I'd like to see Officer Friendly's face if she tried. Lousy fucker'd run a mile. Wouldn't know what the hell to do with a real woman, one with fire in her_.

"Are you gonna leave me here like this?" He looked up at her, defiant. _I ain't gonna beg. I ain't gonna beg_.

"I haven't decided yet." She hunkered down on the ground, just far enough that he couldn't grab or kick her. "Figure you're likely to try and hurt me because you can't get at the ones who left you like this."

"I won't hurt ya." He actually managed to feel as offended as he sounded.

"I said you'd try not that you'd succeed." She smirked.

"Whatever. It's gonna bug me not knowing what you're looking for now. Especially as you so kindly pointed out, several times I might add, how incapable I am of being of any use to you." He sneered the last few words but was genuinely curious.

"Company." She said quietly after a moment.

"Is that it? Just company?" he chuckled.

"No. Not _just_ company." She answered with a direct, unwavering gaze.

He burst into gales of laughter, loud and hearty.

"You wanna get fucked?" he asked between chuckles. _What're you waiting for, honey; let me out and we'll get started_.

"No." Her tone was icy and cut him off short. She stood again and walked to the edge of the roof, leaning on and looking over the short wall at the streets below. With a shrug she turned back to him.

"Love doesn't live here anymore." She gestured behind her with one hand, a finger circling briefly in the air to indicate that she meant a whole lot more than just the street below or even the whole city.

"Yes it does. I've seen it." Judging from her expression, this was the first thing he'd uttered that had not just surprised but downright shocked her. _Just coz I talk slow, honey, don't mean I'm stupid_. He saw a flash of grudging respect cross her face. But she shook her head anyway.

"Things aren't the same as they were, probably never will be again." She came closer again and sat within reach this time, but he made no move to touch her. "I'm planning on making my way up to Canada, to the wilderness, make a life for myself there."

"Alone?" She nodded. _So she has balls, so what?_

"I don't know whether I'll see people again or not after this place. I wanted one last day of feeling human. So I was looking for someone who'd give me that. I have things I could barter in exchange for their time and…the other stuff."

_Barter? Do you like chicken? Coz I got a nice big co- wait…what kinda stuff?_

"Other stuff? You mean fu-uh-physical stuff?" She raised an eyebrow at his close save.

"I mean I want one day of being treated like I'm the only woman in the world. Which is ironic as once I reach the wilderness it'll feel like it. I want to feel cared for before I leave, and I want to leave having been so well made love to that it'll last me a lifetime." Her eyes never left his.

He could see in the set of her mouth that she was serious and gulped.

_She honestly thinks she'd have to _pay_ some guy to treat her good and fuck her gently? And she's lecturing me on self worth. Jesus_.

"I can be nice." He said fervently. She gaped at him in disbelief.

_You and me both, sweetheart. Not sure where in fuck that came from but it's out there for God and all his monkeys to see now so let's run with it._

"Can you? Can you control your mouth and actually be a person for twenty-four hours? From sun-up to sun-up? I don't think so." She looked away from him then, but he heard the uncertainty in her tone.

"I can. I can be nice. Let me out and I'll show you." He ignored the fact that it sounded like he was begging and chose to say something he hadn't said since he was eight years old. "_Please_."

That had an effect alright. She went completely still. He could see the wheels turning in her head. He didn't want those wheels to stop so he kept talking.

"Let me show you. If you're not satisfied with my efforts you can…you can tie me to a tree." She burst out laughing. _Well fuck you very much_.

"Jesus, woman, there's no need to humiliate me further by laughing at me. I'm already chained to a pipe like a goddamned dog," he grumbled. She ignored him and stood, walking away with her eyes on the ground.

"Where is it?" she asked without bothering to look at him.

"Where's what?"

_How in hell am I supposed to know if you don't tell me? Know a lot of psychic rednecks do you?_

"The key." His mouth went dry. She meant to let him out. That's the only thing she could mean. But was she just letting him go so she wouldn't have his death on her conscience or was she going to accept him for her…bargain?

"It's…uh…it fell down that drain cover over there." He jerked his head toward the metal grate. "It's probably gone."

"No, it's there. I just need to get at it."

"That's gonna be hard. It only has the thinnest little bit of wire hanging off it. Can you make something into a hook?" _Please let there be something please let there be something_.

"I can go one better." She unbuttoned part way down her shirt and pulled it over her head. The figure that was revealed had him standing to attention in two seconds flat. Wide hips, a little waist and narrow ribcage encased in just a thin vest were topped by… _Oh sweet God in Heaven_. As she reached behind her and unhooked her bra, freeing the most heavenly pair of large, natural breasts he'd ever laid eyes on, he audibly groaned. She'd joked that they were spectacular but they deserved to be worshipped.

She pulled the bra out from under her vest and fiddled with the clasp, bending the little hooks out a bit, then started fishing through the grate. Every movement of her arm made her jiggle, which was pure torture to poor Merle. He occupied himself by hitting the back of his head repeatedly against the pipe to which he was chained. Minutes later she reappeared.

"Oh COME ON!" he protested as the most perfect breasts in the world were brought close to his face as she leaned over him.

_You're killing me here, darlin'_.

"Eyes up here, soldier." She chuckled, waving the shiny little key to and fro in his line of sight, although her own gaze drifted South, taking on an appreciative look when they came to rest on the front of his pants.

"Eyes up here, soldier." It was Merle's turn to smirk. If she decided on taking him up on his offer, he at least knew he'd be able to satisfy the last part of her wish. He was very big and he knew it; she'd remember him for a lifetime, no doubt. He took the opportunity to whip the key out from between her fingers. As he put it into the hole in the handcuffs she stayed his hand with her own.

"Wait." He stilled and waited, watching her eyes flicker between his own as she came to a decision. "Twenty-four hours. From sunrise tomorrow to sunrise the next day." _Yes. Yesyesye_s. He nodded and went to unlock the cuffs but she still held his hand still. She cleared her throat. "There's still the matter of your…inexperience in certain areas."

Merle removed the key from the lock and pushed it into his pants' pocket. He waited. Half of him wanted to sneer at her, tell her she was stupid for trusting him and laugh as he walked away from her. But another part of him, deep and previously unknown, keened at the thought of putting distance between them. So he remained motionless, waiting to see what she'd do.

She turned her head away from him for almost a full minute, not speaking, not making any sound at all. When she looked back at him he saw something in her expression that took his breath away, something very close to respect and admiration, affection and longing. No woman had ever, ever looked at him, Merle Dixon, like that before.

She leaned forward, bringing her hand to his cheek like before, and brushed her lips against his so softly he could hardly feel it, her eyelids fluttering closed. His fingers wove into her thick hair without him even realising he had moved his free hand. She pressed her lips against his harder, and he opened his mouth against hers, letting her deepen the kiss into something so sweet that it bypassed all of his usual responses. For the first time, he was taking part in a kiss that had gone straight to his heart instead of his dick. And it scared him.

"Merle." She murmured his name reverently as she broke the kiss, leaning her forehead against his for a few seconds, her eyes still shut. He was glad, he needed those moments to find his way back to himself. But not all the way back. She'd been right. He knew something now that he hadn't before, and he somehow felt bigger for it. When she opened her eyes the expression that had jarred him so was gone, replaced by her previous surety and businesslike detachment.

"Go ahead and open them. And feel free to go back to being an asshole for the rest of the day. Sunrise tomorrow, though, not a word out of character until the next morning." She stood and stepped backwards, away from him. He thought a moment before fishing the key out of his pocket and making short work of the cuffs.

_About fucking time_.

Standing had never felt so good. He stretched every single muscle in his body, completely oblivious of his audience. When he finished cracking his neck he saw that she hadn't moved, but he couldn't figure out what was going on in her head, or why her shoulders were slumped.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" he asked.

"Half expected you to just walk the other way and toss an insult over your shoulder." _Oh hell no_. Now that pissed him off. He took two long strides and got right in her face. To her credit, she didn't flinch.

"I don't welch on deals. That there was as good as a handshake and I intend to keep my side of the bargain. I've no intention of minding my language tonight but I'll try to keep a lid on the insults. For now." Her body visibly relaxed. "And if you don't want anything kicking off early I suggest you put the damn shirt back on again."

He turned and walked to the door, which he opened and held, looking back to her. "Well, woman? Are you coming? Coz I don't have the slightest goddamned idea where we're going." She fumbled her bra and shirt back on hurriedly - _hey no rush, honey_ - and walked over to look him right in the eye.

"I have a name, you know." She looked like she half expected him to laugh at her again.

"Well, what is it?" he asked, exasperated.

"Do you actually give a shit what it is?" _Oh she's sassy, this one_.

"Not really. No." She had given him permission to go back to being an asshole for the rest of the night after all.

"Well then I'm not telling you what it is." She shoved past him and strode through the door, hopping down the steps. He followed.


	2. Chapter 2

****Reworked 12 Nov.**

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. **

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Blue Oyster Cult - don't fear the reaper**

**10,000 Maniacs - Trouble me  
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**Chapter 02**

He was surprised to find that she wasn't annoying. _Not yet anyway_. She'd gone straight for weapons and silently checked each and every one before slipping them into place; knife in her waistband, another in the side of her boot, two guns got strapped around her waist and a longbow and arrows were slung across her chest by their straps. He grunted his appreciation of her choices, picking up a pair of machetes to add to the arsenal that already inhabited his person.

"Shall we?" he said with a dramatic sweep of his arm toward the door.

She paused at the door, looking cautiously up and down the street, then moved out past them, making a motion for him to come with her. He moved to her side. _As much as I like the view from back there, I ain't being led around by the nose like some beaten down old bull_.

"My ride is three streets that way." She pointed with the hand that would draw her bow if necessary. He nodded.

"You best take one of these," he said, handing her a machete, "that bow won't help in close quarters."

"Why, Merle, is that concern I hear?" She grinned, taking the blade and testing its heft in her palm. _Concern for you dying and me not getting a whole day of fucking? You bet your ass_.

"Hell no. I just don't want you letting anything get the jump on us," he taunted. And jumped as she swung her arm backwards at a walker that had crept up beside them.

"Like that?" She flicked the walker gunk off the blade, her eyes never leaving his.

"Something a might like that, yeah," he said grimly. _What do you want, a medal? Let's do this_.

She moved out with a nod of her head and they made their way carefully across the street, keeping an eye on the walkers that noticed them, although they were moving too slowly to get near. The ones that were ahead of them, though, were numerous and grouped together. _No room for error, lotsa room for fun_.

He raised his chin at her silently, turning his back to her. She got the idea quickly, turning away from him and reversing until they touched. They stayed pressed together as they reached the mob, cutting into them efficiently. Fighting back to back came naturally to them both, and they spun through them like a lethal pinwheel, a long trail of bodies marking their path like bloody breadcrumbs.

The act of killing the walkers was so second nature to him now that his mind was able to wander enough to appreciate the feel of her lean flanks pressed against him as they fought. Occasionally her hand would reach back instinctively to grip his hip or thigh, briefly but firmly, reassuring herself that he was still there. _Just a little bit lower, honey_. He didn't kid himself that it was concern for his wellbeing, but he liked her touch just fine all the same. It took him a few minutes to realise that he was doing the same to her.

The hand he wasn't fighting with had fisted itself into the edge of her shirt and the waistband of her shorts and was holding onto it with a death grip. It must have been limiting her movement some because he felt her little hand pry his fingers out of her clothing, he thought to push him away, but her own fingers folded themselves into his, and he squashed down the relief he felt. _Well ain't that sweet._ They clenched every time she swung and hit, flexed if she missed, and every time he hit something, her thumb tightened momentarily.

When the last walker fell to a blow of his machete, he reached his whole arm around her middle and yanked her against his back for a minute, just needing to breathe and scan the area to make sure they had gotten them all. _Stay still damnit, I need to know you're sa- not gonna run off on me_. She patted his arm and chuckled.

"We did good, soldier. Now let's go see about getting the hell out of here." She pulled him by his fingertips in the direction she wanted to go, but halted with a grunt.

"Fuck." She crouched down and he did the same instinctively. "They've surrounded my ride. The engine's hot enough still to be creaking as it cools. That's probably what's attracted them."

"Are you shitting me? That big fucking rig is your ride? Woman, you don't do things by halves." Merle gawped at the enormous rig and trailer parked up down the street. _What I could do with a rig like that, Daryl too. Wouldn't need to stick with a group of assholes who don't even give us the time of day without wondering if we're gonna steal something while they're looking at their watch_.

It was the kind that did bi-coastal long haul, with a cabin for the driver and a trailer big enough to fit a bus inside. What looked like the bastard lovechild of a handmade cattle grill and a snowplough encompassed the front of the rig, decorated with sharp spikes. One more, curved and evil looking, rose from the top centre like a rhinoceros horn.

"Knew you were a horny bitch, but damn. You ain't gonna stick me on that thing if I don't live up to your expectations are ya?" _Oooh, stinkeye's back_. She made a zipping motion across her lips as she frowned at him.

"We need to draw them away. There's too many even for the two of us." Her eyes were flitting between the rig, the walkers, and the surrounding space. Some bushes in big planters and some benches were the only real obstacles; it was too clear to fight and keep the walkers at a slow pace without anything to block their forward momentum.

"Look, I'll draw them away, you get in the truck and start the engine." She held out a small bunch of keys, which he didn't take. He cuffed her around the back of her head softly. _Eejit. Why in hell didn't I just take them?_

"One, don't make that kinda offer to someone you just met. What in hell are you thinking?" He gave her a little shake by her shoulders. "Big box of safety on wheels like that. Use your fucking head, woman; anyone in their right minds would steal it in a heartbeat. Two, you're younger and faster and actually know how to drive that beast." She had the decency to look embarrassed at her mistake.

"I'll do the distracting; you get your ass into that rig as fast as you can and bring it closer. Meantime, I'll draw those things off in a circle. Reckon we'll meet in the middle like." He scrubbed his hand over his face as he waited for her agreement. She nodded. _And then we can get back to the part where I put my meat in your middle_.

"OK, fine, but be safe. You owe me." She smirked as she rocked back on her haunches, ready to run to the rig.

Merle gripped his machete in one hand and drew a gun with the other, noise was something they wanted on this occasion. He ran toward the end of the street with a shot in the air, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Hey, fucksicles! Over here! Come take a bite of my shiny, sweet ass! Woohoo! You know I'm the best meal you've had since your momma cut off your daddy's beaver cleaver and barbequed it. That's right, fucktarts, come get old Merle. Ima fuck you up and not call in the morning to say thank you." He ran and swerved, trying to get them to herd into one clump as they ambled toward him, carving off bits and pieces of heads from those who wouldn't get in formation or just got too close.

The woman sprinted as soon as the walkers were well away from the rig and moving toward him with purpose. With keys in her teeth she hurdled one straggler that was making its way out from under the rig and landed on the steps. She wrenched the door open and climbed in, taking off the frontal region of the straggler's head as she slammed it shut behind her.

"Woohoo yeah!" cried Merle, pumping his fist in the air.

The beast roared to life with a big, phlegmy chuckle of its engine, hacking and coughing black smoke out of the exhaust behind the driver's cab. The rig lurched forward and the cab turned away from him.

"Well woohoo NO!" snarled Merle. "Where in hell are you going?" _Fuckin' bitch, no-one leaves Merle behind. Well, except when they do, but I'll teach those sumbitches back at camp a lesson they won't forget_. He started to run toward the truck, dodging the walkers that he had to pass too closely. By the time he realised he'd been mistaken, he was running full pelt for the rig with a conga line of walkers behind him.

"Motherfucking party of the century," he muttered, not missing a step. The rig was reversing toward him at speed now and he barely had time to register her words before it was almost too late. _Oh shit_.

"Drop! Merle drop!" she screamed, her head poking out of the window as the back of the trailer bore down on him.

_You think?!_

Merle dropped to the ground, only just having time to turn on his back before the rig passed over him, wheels either side, a small tornado inflating his clothing as the underbelly of the beast soared above him. He watched as the trailer cut through the line of walkers like a knife through butter, leaving a wide spray of blood and black gunk on either side of the line of body parts and slush. It came to a halt still above him and he saw her boots hit the ground, then her forearms, as she searched frantically underneath the truck. He waved.

"You OK?" She stretched a hand out to pull him from under the rig, checking him over for wounds as he got to his feet.

"Just fine. No bites. But my ass feels like a piñata." He grabbed both asscheeks for effect, kneading them gingerly.

"You make a habit of shoving candy up your butt, Merle?" she asked, deadpan.

"Do I make a…you know damn well what I mean!" He stalked past her and around the snowplough of doom to the other side of the rig and climbed in the cab. He shoved a bunch of maps across the seat and sat down with a thump, shortly followed by a deeply felt groan. His behind was not ready for this.

The woman clambered into the driver's seat and shut the door after scraping the walker remains off with her heel. She looked at him with some amount of sympathy. "There's a bed back there you can lie face down on if sitting's too much for you right now." He just glared at her.

"I'm _fine_. Just…let's get going so we can get wherever we're going and I can get back to standing up the way nature intended any man with a sore backside to do."

"As you wish." She chuckled. "It's not a long way. You won't have to suffer too much." Her sentence was cut short by a violent banging from the trailer behind them. The woman didn't bat an eyelid but Merle nearly jumped out of his seat.

"What the hell do you have back there? I swear, if you're one of them weird walker hoarders I'm getting out right this second."

"Oh relax. It's just Thunderchild and his family. They want to find a base camp for the night as much as I do." She shrugged.

"It'sa whut?" Merle didn't like being the one left out of the loop, or feeling stupid, which he felt surprisingly rarely considering the premise of most of the things he said.

"Not a whut. A who. And you'll see soon enough. I assume you're eventually going to want to get back to your camp?" She raised an eyebrow, glancing at him as her hands turned the wheel to set them on the highway.

"Damn straight. I got some ass kickings to hand out. And my brother'll be worried. Well, not so much worried as being a mean, rude bastard to everyone, but it amounts to the same thing with him." The woman looked at him knowingly. "Yeah, yeah, it runs in the family, I know."

"OK so which way is that? I can find a camp for the night halfway there, or we can go all the way back, although I don't think I want anyone else around for our bargain any more than you do."

"Your head is entirely too well screwed onto your shoulders." There was hostility in Merle's voice. "No I wouldn't want to do that there. I don't…want anyone else around to see." _I ain't no sissy and I ain't having any of them assholes seeing me acting like one_. She nodded sagely, choosing to understand rather than be offended.

"That way." He pointed to a turn. "Take us about ten miles; we can find a camp around there. I think there was a decent sized river, and the ground's high so walkers find it difficult to get to."

She said nothing but pointed the rig in the direction he pointed, revving the engine and building up their momentum down a slope to cope with the uphill on the other side. He didn't mind the silence that stretched between them after that. It wasn't uncomfortable, just purposeful. But he found himself at a loss as one particular thing kept pinging around in his brain. _Oh fer Christ's sake just ask her_.

"OK I give a shit what your name is. You gonna tell me or what?" He kept his gaze trained out the window, the very study of disinterest. But she didn't speak until he'd looked long enough to wonder why she remained silent and turned his head to look at her. She half smiled; he narrowed his eyes.

"It's Ada." He grunted. He liked simple things. She might be anything but, but her name was simple enough.

"Sounds like your parents had some old fashioned ideas just like mine did. Used to get teased at school, called Meryl. Until I got big enough to start cracking heads. No-one said a word about it after that."

"I bet they didn't." She looked at him speculatively, as if weighing up how much it may or may not have hurt him to have had something as personal as his name made fun of. Wisely, she said nothing to that effect. "Nobody said anything about mine. I got teased a little because my dad had a limp, but that died off after they found out he was a fireman and got it saving someone from a fire."

"He a good guy, your daddy?" Merle wasn't so much curious about it for her sake, but because he'd spent so long assuming that everyone's daddies were just pieces of shit. It had taken some time getting used to it when he reached his twenties and found out that not everyone felt the same.

"The best. He died four years ago trying to save my mom and brother when their house went up in flames." _You, too, huh?_ "Ironic, considering his profession." He saw her swallow hard.

"I'm sorry. I know it isn't much, especially coming from an ignorant sumbitch who's called you all kinds of names, but I'm sorry. For a long time I didn't know fathers could be good, but it's sad that you had a good one and lost him and your family." He put a hand on her arm and the eyes that turned to him held unshed tears. "If it's any consolation, and I know you don't believe he's in Heaven or anything, but when it happened, he would have been so happy that his little girl wasn't there, that you were still OK."

"Yes, yes he would." She nodded emphatically.

"Did you ever tell him that he did a good job? Did you tell him that you loved him and were glad he was yours?" He brushed a tear away, somehow knowing that she'd rather that than have him see it fall. She nodded again. _OK, so it ain't exactly gonna kill me to be nice for five minutes_.

"Every day." She smiled widely, seeing some memory in her mind's eye that was better than the world they were in now. A world where fathers hugged their children and cared what sort of people they would grow up to be.

"Then you were a good daughter, and he was proud of you. There's nothing else that matters." He patted her arm and returned his gaze to the landscape flying past the window.

"Thank you." she said softly. "And I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For what I said on the roof. Well, part of it. When I asked if you could be a person for a whole day." She looked at him seriously. "You're a person. Maybe even a really good one underneath all the 'shits' and 'fucks' and 'bitches'. So I'm sorry." She turned her attention back to the road, leaving Merle to mull that over for a second. _Well…shit_.

"Apology accepted. And don't worry, I've been called worse. I know I don't always give the best first impression. It's intentional." He was only half joking.

"Well, I'm OK with your second impression." She grinned and thumped him on the shoulder lightly.

"OK, let's not have ourselves any chick flick moments. I ain't good with mushy stuff. Let's just get somewhere I can stretch my legs and air my backside without it getting bit. That's enough for me." _Don't you go thinking well of me, honey; all old Merle's good for is fucking you and leaving you in the dust_.

"Whatever you say, soldier." She laughed and stepped on the gas.


	3. Chapter 3

****Reworked 12 Nov.**

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. Well hot damn, I only have one reviewer so far but they seem to be enjoying this story enough for twenty people :D Thanks for your reviews, Caffiend04, they are rocking my world and great encouragement to keep going. Feel free to check out the song mentioned in this chapter; it's sexy as fuck, just like Merle. ;)**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**KT Tunstall - Black horse**

**Oh Susanna - Back dirt road**

**Chapter 03**

"That looks like a good spot up there. Can the rig handle the incline and the state of that track?" Merle sounded doubtful. There were potholes by the dozen along the winding dirt track but the top of the hill, part open grass, part woodland, would be perfect if they could get up there.

"Can she handle it?" Ada scoffed. "Don't listen to him, baby. He doesn't know you like I do." She patted the steering wheel.

"She? This big fucker is a female? Next thing you'll be telling me she's a thespian, too." Merle sneered, looking confused as Ada propped her face in her palms and groaned. _Jeez, lady, I'm kidding_.

"Doreen. She's Doreen. After the Old 97s song of the same name." She stroked the gears lovingly.

"Why?" Merle knew the song, but didn't think it boded well.

"Because she's a fuckhot lady and a ton of trouble." She said as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

"Just like her owner, huh?" he said with a wink.

"You have no idea." Her smirk gave Merle the distinct impression that he may have bitten off more than he could chew and it made him squirm a little. He'd never spent so much time feeling uncomfortable in another person's presence before. It was pleasant, no doubt about that, but he couldn't get used to feeling like he was in the dark on a whole lot of subjects when it came to her.

The rig turned onto the dirt track, her big wheels punching through the potholes without complaint. The same couldn't be said for their noisy passenger in the trailer, who had quite a bit to say in a stream of demolition volume Morse Code. Merle remembered he had seen windows high in the sides of the trailer, propped slightly ajar. If whoever was in there needed air, that was a good thing as it cut out the likelihood of undead backseat drivers. _Goddamn but they sound like one big sonofabitch._ He hoped it wasn't a brother she hadn't mentioned, but didn't want to ask as the only brother she had mentioned was dead.

Ada's handled the hill well; it would have been easy to come unstuck on a road this badly surfaced and go careening off down the side of the hill. But every turn was masterfully taken, every dip adjusted for as they drove higher and higher up the slope. _Ain't telling her that. Can't have a woman thinking she can drive like a man_. The very last hump took a lot of concentration, he could tell by the beads of sweat that broke out on her forehead and trickled down her cheeks. The back of the trailer slewed just a little before making it over, but the flat, open space they found themselves in had been worth the effort.

Merle grinned at her and nodded, as close as he could get to complimenting her on her skill at the wheel for now. She rummaged around in an overhead compartment for a moment, bringing out two bottles of water, one of which she threw to him.

_No, baby, stay up there a little longer, I'm enjoying the view_.

"We need to rehydrate. I know we weren't up on the roof long, but the fight with the walkers will have taken it out of us." She gulped down her water in long swallows, and he almost forgot his as he watched her throat working.

_What you'd look like with your mouth wrapped around me instead of that bottle, I could punish that long neck of yours_.

He had to drag his mind out of the gutter in order just to be able to open his own bottle. A task made extremely difficult by the water trickling down her chin and creeping quickly downward to pool in the notch where her collarbones met. In his mind he could so easily reach out a thumb and smudge the moisture from that hollow while his fingers splayed to press into the pulse hammering nearby in the smooth column of her neck. _I'll do that and more come tomorrow._

It occurred to him that it was a strange thing, a young woman like her choosing an old man like him, coarsened by life in body and spirit, for her last day of…he didn't even know what to call it.

_Love? Humanity? How many men worse than me has she come across that she thinks I'm high enough up the food chain to be able to give it to her?_

He shook the image out of his head and drank. It must have been a refrigerated compartment; the water was ice cold and he groaned in appreciation.

He didn't see her own eyes flicker over his chest and arms while he drank, missed the dilation of her pupils and the little pink tongue that licked along her lower lip and the quickened pulse beating at the base of her throat. All he saw when he lowered the bottle was a slight flush on her cheeks as she turned to look back out the window. She turned back to him a second later.

"Time to meet the gang. Try not to feel too emasculated." She winked and slid out of the now open door. He followed, dropping from his side of the truck with a bend of his knees as his feet hit the ground. Joining her at the back of the trailer, huffing under his breath about the likelihood of there being a fella on the planet who could make him feel unmanned, he watched as she fiddled with the large lock that held the double doors closed.

"Stand to the side; there's a drop down panel and I'm not feeling the urge to flatten your ass right this minute." She waved him aside and he moved, still keeping his eyes on the darkness behind the opening doors.

Ada flicked a latch and a large slatted metal panel fell down, forming a shallow slope from the back of the trailer to the ground. A familiar smell hit Merle's nostrils and he took a deep breath with a smile. The smile fell off his face the second the first footfall hit the panel.

"What in the name of fuck is that?" He couldn't close his hanging jaw right now if he tried.

"This in Thunderchild." She smirked, obviously enjoying the effect of her surprise.

"Well I gathered that, thank you very much. What in hell is he?" He moved forward unconsciously, enthralled by the creature that stood before him, blocking the entire entrance to the trailer with his shadow.

"A horse." She really was a master at that deadpan tone. _Sarcastic bitch_.

"I've seen horses. I _like_ horses. That ain't a horse. That is an anti aircraft tank with legs. What the hell did you do, squash three normal horses together to make one good one?" The leg that had moved forward to plant its hoof on the walkway was the size of a tree trunk, so thickly feathered with flowing hair that the hoof itself was all but invisible. He did notice that the front of the shoe was drawn out to form a large point, though, and he had an idea what it might be for. _Personal note: try not to piss this thing off_.

"He's a Shire Horse." She answered, not taking her eyes off the animal in the truck.

"He escape from Lord of the Rings?" Merle asked with apparent gravity. _Yeah, I read. Try not to fall over_.

"Merle!" she laughed until her eyes started to water. Satan's mount just looked calmly between the two of them with an expression of great tolerance.

"Jesus, I was just asking." He scrubbed his hand over his head with a laugh.

"No, not from Lord of the Rings. Much as I would like some magic horses from Middle Earth, these are English, bred to pull ploughs to work the fields. Biggest horses on the planet, and the strongest."

"You like doing things big dontcha? Big rig, big horse. It's no wonder you're keeping me around." He winked at her and enjoyed the fact that her cool dropped long enough for her face to flush prettily. _Oh, honey, I'm gonna make you do that all over_. It was gone quickly and replaced by that crooked smile that he liked so much.

"Merle, you're being a little fucker again." She reached past him to untie a knot fixed to the trailer wall.

"Well the fucker part is right," he shot back with a lascivious grin.

Ada pulled gently on the rope she held and the behemoth moved forward into the light, intelligent eyes giving Merle a once over and deciding quickly that he was no threat. _No shit, there's elephants that'd run away from this bastard_. Its coat was midnight black, dappled with whirlpools of pitch, and a long, black mane flowed down a neck that was shiny with sweat and thickly muscled.

Looking at the stallion, he understood Ada's crack about feeling emasculated. _Doesn't mean I like it any. And I ain't so little of a man that you overlooked me now am I_? The incredible musculature continued along huge flanks and hind quarters that looked like they should have been pulling the rig, not riding in it. Merle was fairly certain that one kick from the hooves, the size of dinner plates, would kill a man if he took it to the head.

He thought that the spikes were designed for exactly that, just not for the living, although any of the living that tried anything would find it the last bad idea they ever had. As its hooves hit the grass beyond the walkway it half reared in excitement and Merle felt his colour drain slightly.

_Fuck me sideways_. _This thing has to be only an asshair shy of three metres tall at the head. Maybe weighs in at three and a half to four thousand pounds_.

"He's named after the battleship in War of the Worlds." She stroked the thick neck and Merle watched as the stallion dipped his huge head to nuzzle the woman with obvious affection.

"I should think that's about the only damn thing you could name him after." He stepped toward the horse-tank, holding out a hand for it to sniff, which it did with avid curiosity and a steady gaze that made Merle feel a little…little.

"I know, buddy, I ain't got no misconceptions about who's the main man here." The horse shook its head, which made him laugh. "You either, huh?" He smoothed a firm hand under its jaw and cheek, moving down the thick neck. "We'll get on just fine." He nodded to Ada, giving the horse's neck a last pat. She smiled and flung the rope over its neck and gave it a swat on the hind quarters.

"Go find a spot while I get your family out." She disappeared into the trailer for a moment, reappearing with two more ropes in hand. She didn't seem to mind that Thunderchild moved off at a quick clip across the grass. He tested a few of the patches of grasses for taste and then moved back to one and rolled ecstatically on it. That was apparently the right spot, as he stood, shook himself all over like a dog, then made a soft noise and simply stood and waited with an expectant air about him.

Merle turned to see Ada leading two more horses from the trailer, one a mare close in size to her mate and looking uncomfortably pregnant, the other a colt about half the size of its mother. The mare was a silver colour with dappled clouds covering her hide all over and the feathers around her hooves were pure white. The colt, though, that was something else. It was a sport, a genetic anomaly, split length ways one half was its father's black, the other half its mother's hoarefrost colour. The dark half had a brown eye, the light half a bright blue one.

"Mama's name is Boudicca, her son is Mammon." She clipped the ropes of their halters to a hook on the back of the trailer and pulled some bits of straw and hay out of their manes, absently fingering the snarls and tangles back into smoothness.

"You named him after one of the crown princes of Hell?"

"Well it was going to be Mammoth but that spooky blue eye of his just cried out for something a little more fitting. He's a sweetheart, though." She ruffled his forelock and he pressed his head into her side, loving the attention. Merle fleetingly considered growing a forelock.

"How far along is she?" He ran a hand down the side of the mare, barely able to reach her back due to her height and increased girth.

"She'll drop the foal some time in the next three weeks. I'm hoping for another boy. I couldn't bear to part with Mammon, but if I come across any good people, a stallion to trade in full or in stud could give them a fighting chance. These guys can pull a plough all day, and you're pretty much invincible while riding them, whether it's walkers or people who try to take a bite out of you." He didn't like the sound of that and took a step so he was close enough to be able to tip her chin up with one finger. He wanted to be able to look down into her eyes and search for the truth, or not, in them.

_Is that why you thought I'd hurt you, because someone already did?_

"Anyone ever try that? People, I mean, not the walkers." She didn't try to pull away, but her eyes shifted sideways as she remembered something she hadn't wanted to.

"Some did. There was a group made up only of men, about nine or so. That was bad news in the world before; now it's just a one way ticket. They saw me as a thing to be collected. I didn't like that idea."

"What happened?" Without thinking, he slipped the fingers of his other hand into hers.

"I was on the ground, not riding. I was vulnerable. I keep these guys inside electric fencing hooked up to the rig's engine while there's grazing, not to keep them in but to keep the walkers out; the voltage fries the part of the brain stem that activates them. Thunderchild saw one of them throw me to the ground and…he tore the fence apart and went straight for those men. Have you ever seen a horse angry, have you seen one hate?" Merle shook his head.

"I've seen them feisty, and irritable, and fed up with the heat enough that they'll kick out just to make someone else as fed up as them." She shifted and he felt her fingers twitch against his. "I've seen stallions trying to fight each other to the death running on nothing but hormones. But in thirty years of riding them and working with them I'd never once seen one angry. You think a horse's face is expressionless. It isn't. They saw him coming for them and they didn't even try to run." She shivered and Merle's body did the same a second later.

He almost went to hug her but instead he took the intensity out of the moment by swinging her round to his side and slinging an arm around her shoulders.

"Well, he's a mama's boy. Only did what any good son would have done. The end result was probably just a lot…hmm…flatter." She outright laughed at that, the tension flitting away as they stood with the two horses. She pulled his hand and led him up the ramp into the trailer. It was strewn with straw and hay and sunbeams crisscrossing through the windows. It smelled heavenly and had a warmth to it completely unlike the humidity of the countryside they were travelling through.

_Smells like home. Not that I remember, but if home had a smell this'd be it_.

"We need to untangle these wires so I can fence them in. Thunder's already chosen the spot he wants. Once they're settled with food and water we can relax." She pulled the snarled wires off the floor and passed one end to Merle. They leaned back against opposite sides of the trailer and started to slowly untangle the knots.

"I can fetch some water from the river for them. Do you have food or should I go hunt something?" She smiled at him then, pure and warm. He must have said something right.

"That would be great. I have food for us, though. I even have…bacon."

"Well fer Christ's sake why didn't you say so before? I'd have torn the handcuffs off the rail myself if I'd known you had bacon." She laughed so hard at that she had to brace herself on her knees for a while until her breathing was back to normal. He watched with interest as she pressed her fingers against her cheeks, trying to get rid of the colour that had risen in them while she laughed. She puffed a strand of hair out of her face and smiled at him. It was the closest thing to content he had felt in a long, long time.

He finished the last of the knots in his end of the wire and hooked a hand into the bar that ran behind him the length of the trailer wall, still watching her, but remembering something else.

"This reminds me of the hayloft in my neighbour's farm when we were kids. His daughter and I would go up there together. It was innocent, we were only nine, but it was something all the same. I could make her laugh like no-one else could, and that made me feel about ten feet tall. And she made me feel needed. It was the only time in my life I ever felt…sweet. She had hair like yours, curls the colour of hay, wore it in pigtails. I spent an entire summer working up the courage to pull one of them."

"Like this?" She'd run her fingers quickly through her hair, separating out the two halves, and made a loose braid of each one, leaving the ends open and curling together.

_You're too quick on the uptake for your own good, darlin'_.

He nodded, reaching out an arm to its full stretch to twirl a finger in the ends as she took a couple steps forward. He could see tiny beads of sweat on her upper lip, and a fine halo of hairs sticking out all around her. Her eyes shifted to his and lowered as she moved closer.

"You know," Some of the colour returned to her cheeks again. "that's one of the ways we'd figure out if a boy liked us when we were young. Put your hair in pigtails, if the boy pulled them, it meant he liked you. It was dumb…"

"No. No it wasn't. It's true sure enough." He reached out and tugged gently on her hair, pulling her closer to him.

"Kinda unfair, though. You boys didn't wear any. How were we supposed to tell you we liked you back?" She took a step closer as he wrapped the silky yarn of her hair around his clenched fist.

"You let us." He answered huskily, pulling her flat against him and claiming her mouth in a deep kiss. She hummed into his mouth and brought gentle hands around his neck to keep him close. He wrapped both arms around her, mumbling something about practice for the next day, and turned to press her against the wall of the trailer. Her little hands weren't so gentle now, fisted tightly into his shirt, and she made little squeaks and moans as her body enjoyed the sensation of his muscles moving against it.

He was lost enough in her that he hadn't felt the floor dip. Didn't notice anything but the soft of her mouth and the silk of her skin until he went to move a hand underneath her shirt and suddenly found very large teeth closed around it. Big, black eyes regarded him accusingly from under the curling mane. A flex of the muscular neck and Merle was being led gently, but very firmly, out of the trailer. Ada giggled delightedly and followed them out. She tried to stand beside him but Thunderchild was having none of it, and put his head down and between them every time she moved.

Merle tried the same and was met with the thump of a hoof on the ground. He wisely kept his feet in place after that. Reaching a hand across to her didn't work either. Every time he did, it would be grasped purposefully in the cavernous mouth and pulled away from her. Ada reached her arm out and he didn't stop her. She was allowed to touch Merle, to take his hand in her own. Only then did he permit her to step closer to him. The large head wove between them, taking in both their scents, eyes heedful of how close their bodies were getting. She reached her hand out to stroke the horse as she leaned back against Merle's chest, taking his arm and wrapping it around her middle. She drew the other forward so that he could pet the huge nose at the same time as her.

"It's OK, buddy, I ain't gonna hurt your momma." Thunderchild snorted and moved away, apparently not impressed with this new turn of events, but willing to accept it if Ada was OK. She felt Merle chuckle behind her, his arm tightening around her midriff.

"Just as well he and I reach an understanding now, I figure. I want to get some more practice in before tomorrow, get a feel for what you like. I aim to hold up my side of the bargain." _And then some_.

"You'd better. I don't want to end up regretting sharing my bacon." She strode away with a sway to her hips.

_Goddamnit this woman is gonna be the death of me._

Merle grabbed a pair of buckets and headed on down to the river. When he reached the water's edge he simply dumped the buckets and kept walking right onto into the river until the water was up to his chest before sinking his head underneath for a few seconds. He came up spluttering and waded back to the river bank, where he flung himself down on his back. Moments later a bi-colour head appeared, mismatched eyes peering into his own.

"Oh what now?!" The colt snorted and nodded it's head up and down. It seemed confused as to what in actual fuck Merle was doing. "You and me both, buddy, you and me both."


	4. Chapter 4

****Rewritten 12 Nov. All chapters reworked so may be worth double checking what's changed. Beginning Merle is a bit more…Merle.**

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. Soooooo yeeeeah this may be longer than three or four chapters :) This always happens; I have a basic idea, then way too many extra ones come along that are just begging to be included.**

**Sorry about the repost; I was really unhappy with the quality. Much better now. Huge thank you to Caffiend04 for your continued support :)**

**Songs for this chapter:  
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**Djali Zwan - Number of the beast**

**Old 97s - Doreen**

**Chapter 04**

Merle heard a sharp whistle and fell flat on his back as Mammon got to his feet too quickly. He'd been happily leaning against the colt while his clothes dried. After hauling countless buckets up the steep hill to fill the old copper bathtub that Ada used as a trough for the horses he was looking forward to something to eat.

"S'right, just leave me here with all three buckets," he muttered as the colt raced back to Ada.

It had watched him with interest when he first brought the buckets up the hill, then decided that the job wasn't being done to his standard and required his help. He'd followed Merle down to the water and stolen the first bucket he filled, trotting back up the hill with it in his mouth, spilling half the water. Eventually he'd had to get the colt a pail of his own as he didn't see much point in making his own trips with only one.

_Since when does Merle Dixon do domestic chores anyhow? Don't start getting soft; show her a good time and get the hell out._

When he arrived back at the camp with the last of the water, he was greeted with the sight of Thunderchild hauling the trunk of an entire tree into camp in two halves. He marvelled at the enormous muscles bunching under the skin as the horse pulled the trunks along the ground, his massive hooves digging into it with a sure grip and steady gait. Ada moved him expertly, depositing each trunk so they sat parallel to each other with a gap in the middle of about twelve feet.

"Campfire," she said, motioning to the space between the logs.

"The rushes down by the river are dry, they'll start a fire. But they'd make good bedding for your friends here, too. We could harvest some and bundle it up, wouldn't take much time."

"Sure, let's grab some. They make cleaner bedding than straw and I've got plenty of room."

"You know, the colt was carrying buckets of water with me. Exactly how smart are they?" He took some large fire logs from her and started to arrange them in between the seating logs, making a rough circle with them.

"Smarter than most. Truthfully I don't know exactly, but they still manage to surprise me, so I just make a habit of not underestimating them. They know things have changed, that's for sure. And I get the impression that they feel a lot more useful in this new world than the old one where they as a breed were on the verge of becoming endangered." She watched Thunderchild thoughtfully as he went to see how Boudicca was doing. The pregnant mare was standing in the sun with her head down, flicking her ears gently, and he lay his head gently across her back, humphing at her intermittently.

"Jesus. So this nightmare actually worked out for them. I can't see their numbers being in danger much longer now. They might be one of the most useful things in this new world that'll give people the edge. Fuel is gonna dry up sooner rather than later, and the food is getting there already. We need them or we'll never make it living on the land."

"I was hoping to pick up some others on the way up to Canada. I know of at least four heavy horse rescue centres in North America. We can't breed Thunderchild or Mammon with much smaller horses as the mares wouldn't survive the birth. And staying in one place long enough for them to get a foal out of Boudicca just wouldn't be safe. I get nervous staying in one more than a couple days at a time now."

"You likely wouldn't still be alive and kicking if you hadn't paid attention to that instinct. Trust your gut." He patted his for emphasis.

"What about you?" she asked, setting down an armful of light kindling for the fire.

"What about me what?"

"Do you prefer to keep moving or stay in one place for a while?" She picked up the two machetes and passed one to him so they could head down to the banks of the river to collect some of the rushes.

"Well now, that's a tough one. I was part of a group, my brother still is. We'd been at a camp in the hills for a good while now. It was a safe enough spot, but the group life suits him a might better than it does me. Mostly because I can't see the point in making an effort to get on with people who piss me off on a goddamned daily basis. It was them who left me up there and, I guess, them I'll be going back to. It ain't perfect, they'd get rid of me in a heartbeat, as you know, but him and me are a package deal."

"And they didn't have any cause at all for what they did?" She arched an eyebrow.

"So I may have held them at gunpoint a little." He chuckled and she rolled her eyes. He liked that she didn't try to tear him down over that. She'd heard what went down and knew he'd been acting like an asshole, mostly because he was fed up of being ignored, but let it slide all the same. When he thought about it, she'd pretty much judged him only on how he'd acted with her so far.

It only took twenty minutes to cut enough of the bull rushes. They cut them close to the ground, making neat little stooks out of the long stems, then tying them up and hauling them back to the trailer. Ada strew a bunch of them as a bed inside the area that would later be enclosed by the ring of electric fencing she'd be putting together for the horses, inside which they'd stay during the night, and piled the rest behind a partition in the trailer. She beckoned for him to follow her as she opened a door at the back of the trailer.

"So, what do you want for dinner?" she asked, enjoying seeing his jaw drop for the second time. It didn't quite beat the impact of the horses, but the shelves full of food and supplies were impressive enough, taking up what must have been a third the length of the trailer. There were drums of fuel tightly strapped to the floor and a respectable and varied arsenal on a pegboard to the left of the door. Huge sacks of horse feed had had to be restrained by wooden boards; stacked as high as they were, they'd have crushed someone easily otherwise.

"I think you've been holding out on me, woman. What the fuck did you do, empty a Walmart?" He fingered several items of interest; even medical supplies and ammunition were plentiful.

"Close enough, and many other places along the way. Because I have the rig I can go to large supply warehouses that are too far out of the way for most others to ever get to. This way." She motioned with her head for him to follow her. _So much for not letting her lead you around by the nose. Get a grip, moron_. She led him to what must have been the part of the trailer directly behind the driver's cab and took hold of the handle of one of a pair of large, white doors, swinging it open.

"Cooler." She watched him as he stepped inside the walk in fridge. "The other door is a freezer. I have a lot of meat and vegetables in there. I did have fruit juice but there isn't much left; I had to use the space to freeze milk." She shrugged.

"So this is why the engine's always idling," he muttered under his breath. "When you asked what I wanted to eat I thought it was a choice between bacon and squirrel," he said with a grin. "But hell I'd kill for a steak. You got potatoes?" She nodded. "Steak and baked potatoes it is." _Hallelujah_.

"You want to go get the fire started while I round up the crew and get them inside the fence for the night?" He nodded and grabbed a book of matches off a shelf. _Luxury_. The group that had left him on the roof hadn't been reduced to rubbing sticks together yet, but they'd been having to use flint and steel for a long time now. His stomach grumbled obnoxiously at the thought of steak as he made his way to the trees to gather more firewood.

As he approached the camp twenty minutes later with his arms full of branches he saw that the three horses were tethered to the rear of the trailer and Ada was putting the last few posts in the ground to form the large square she'd thread the electric wire along. He frowned; the sledgehammer was making too much noise as it hit the posts. Almost in answer to that stray thought, a walker ambled from behind the trailer and headed straight for her. Shit.

"Ada! Ada!"

_Nonononononononono. Don't you touch her_.

He dropped the wood and started running. It was a tall one with a long stride and would reach her before he could. And she couldn't hear it or him over the noise of the hammer. It was almost within arm's reach of her when she turned enough to see him running flat out toward her. Her face registered what she read in his own and she spun around, but too quickly, the hammer dropping to the ground. She lost her footing and stumbled forward, bringing her face to face with the grisly features of the walker as it lunged, grabbing mindlessly at her with clawed remnants of hands. Its jaw worked furiously as it was overcome with the proximity of a meal.

Ada screamed as she struggled with it, desperately trying to keep the teeth away from her face, but she was losing ground. She reached and prodded with one of her feet, trying to find the sledgehammer she'd dropped. With a vicious shove from the walker she fell, landing on her back in front of it with her ankles caught behind the post she'd been putting in. She had only managed to half rise back up again as the creature stooped to capture any part of her it could latch onto.

For just a moment, not even a full second, it crossed Merle's mind how easy it would be to let the thing have her and take everything she had for himself. _So easy. So quick. All I'd have to do is not lift a finger_. It was gone as quickly as it had come but he felt a sick realisation of his own quality all the same.

"No!" he screamed as he raced toward the struggling pair, raising his blade, ready to strike.

He took a chance and flung his machete overhand, not a hundred percent confident of the aim while running and something he wouldn't have chanced if it hadn't been thoroughly cleaned after their previous fight, but he was desperate enough to try. The trajectory was flawed, the blade slicing her cheek before hitting the walker. He reached her moments after it hit home, lodging itself through the thing's head from front to back. The momentum of the blade had given him precious extra seconds to reach her; the brute force of it knocked the thing's head and torso backward.

The walker, all deliberate movement having ceased the moment its brain was pierced, was starting to topple forward and Merle flung himself across Ada's body. The open cut his blade had given her could kill her if any walker gunk got into it. He crushed her beneath him and braced for impact as he felt the creature crash hard across his back. His instinctive disgust kicked in and he flung one arm behind him, throwing it off him and to the side, while he dragged her with his other arm in the opposite direction, continuing to shield her with his frame.

"Are you OK?" he asked without looking at her. His eyes were scanning around them. No more walkers approached but he heard the furious drumbeats of Thunderchild's hooves and his angry snorts as, concerned, he tried to separate his rope from the back of the trailer so he could join them.

"Yes," he felt her nod against his shoulder, "are you?" Silence stretched out as he gripped her hard against him. "Merle?"

_See if she's hurt. Too many clothes. Need her now. Need to show her she's OK, still alive. Need her to feel me, feel how strong I am, feel protected. Need_.

"No," he spat out, shoving her away from him violently only to sit with his head in his hands. _Get away from me, honey. Don't let me touch you_.

"What's wrong? You did it. I'm fine. We're both safe and that thing is shish kabob." She tried to put a hand on his shoulder and he growled.

"You don't know what I was thinking when that thing was attacking you. Or the shit that's going through my head now." He couldn't bring himself to look at her.

"Oh." She sounded amused. "Surely not…something along the lines of 'let the walker kill her and leave town with all her bacon'?" She shuffled closer to him but didn't try to touch him again.

"How do you-" He looked up for a moment, shocked.

"How do I know that?" He grunted, still having trouble meeting her eyes. "It's a pretty obvious train of thought to follow. I'm only surprised it didn't occur to you the moment I showed you my storeroom."

"You ain't mad?" She shook her head and reached her hand forward but he flinched away again. She just cocked her head in question. _What am I doing? What I almost did_…

"I had to push you away. I thought I was gonna hurt you. I wanted to hurt you." He looked at her then, challenging her to hate him.

"Why did you think you'd hurt me?" _Why don't you look scared? Oh, Ada, you should be afraid of me_.

"I wanted to rip off your clothes and check you for injuries and then take you on the ground like an animal. I still want to," he sneered, punching his fists into the dirt either side of him. "And there you were thinking I was a good guy. I ain't. No-one good would want that. There ain't any good in me and if there ever was my daddy beat it out of me before I was even old enough to have my first fuck," he almost shouted at her.

She stood slowly and he followed, not taking his eyes off her. As a dark flush rose in her cheeks, her mouth set in an angry line and she shoved him hard, palms flat against his chest. She hauled back her hand and slapped him. _Hard_. He clenched his fists by his sides as his own anger rose up, willing himself not to hit her back. She pulled her arm back to do it again, though, and he caught her wrist, holding it inches from his face.

_Fucking hellcat, stop hitting me_.

She threw herself at him then, nails digging into his skin, fingers gripping at his shirt and his neck and his jaw, and he fought her until he realised she was kissing and biting him, hungry and feral. She hooked a foot behind his leg and they both went down - _well goddamn_ - him on his back with her on top of him, her thighs clenched around his hips. Her eyes flashed dangerously, the pupils huge and black, swallowing the irises. She looked thoroughly aroused. And she looked _pissed_.

"Don't you ever say that again," she hissed at him, taking his lips roughly again and springing off him before his cock could even begin to appreciate the heat that had been pressing against it.

Merle lay there shocked as she stalked over to the horses to calm them.

_She…she stood up for me. She protected me from…me._

"Did that really just happen?" he asked no-one in particular.

* * *

><p><strong>OK so I have to ask, does anyone actually want a chapter or part chapter from Ada's POV? I'd been keeping to just Merle's, with no real intention of straying from that. No guarantees but figured I'd ask.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. So we get to the bit (hopefully one of many) which is the reason for the M rating. If you don't like sex scenes, skip this chapter, or the story. Lol**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**The Troggs - Wild thing**

**Buckcherry - Crazy bitch  
><strong>

**Chapter 05**

It took all of half a minute of lying there on the ground for Merle to act.

_Fuck it._

He scrambled to his feet, scooped off his bloody shirt and tore after Ada, the taste of her kisses in his mouth and the sting of her bites still fluttering along his jaw and neck. He caught up to her and tackled her to the ground, pressing her into the grass with his hips and holding her wrists above her head. She struggled half-heartedly and grunted beneath him.

"Hold still, goddamnit," he hissed as she arched against him.

She lunged sideways and upward, the force coupled with the element of surprise allowing her to push him over on his back. _Déja vu_. He hooked his thumbs in the belt of her shorts and pulled hard enough to roll her back under him, ripping them away from her skin as he did so. They both froze in shock as his hands met completely bare skin.

_No panties_.

"Stop me," he groaned, his mouth dropping to her shoulder. Her only answer was twisting and bucking her hip violently into him which turned her on her side. He pushed his weight harder down on her, the action turning her so she lay under him, facing the ground. His hands grabbed at her flailing wrists, bringing and crossing her arms under her stomach, which pushed her ass in the air. He pressed against her back and swapped both her wrists to one hand, pushing the other between them to fumble the opening of his pants.

"Stop me. Honey, you have to stop me." He was kissing her shoulders and murmuring to her hoarsely the entire time he was wrapping his fist around his cock, which was so hard it hurt. He freed it from his pants with a groan and pressed it against the inside of her thigh.

"Ada, please, please stop me. I can't, I can't," he pleaded.

"No." Her voice was a throaty growl as she bucked deliberately back against him.

He lost it then. Gripping her roughly set off another bout of struggling from her, hissing and cursing and trying to bite him. They rolled gracelessly for long moments, each fighting for dominance, until they finally came to rest, Ada on her front with her thighs braced apart, Merle with one of her hands in his and his other pressed under her stomach.

_For me. All for me_.

It only took one glimpse between her thighs where she glistened with want, split open like a ripe peach, for him to crash his hips forward, shoving his thick length into her with a roar of triumph.

She squealed in pain but pushed back against him all the same. He slammed wildly into her several times, crushed between her painfully tight walls, before he realised what he was doing and slowed his thrusts.

_Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh, Ada, oh fuck._

Still inside her, eliciting a whimper from her each time he rocked his hips into hers, he licked beads of sweat from her neck and clutched onto her like a dying man. He dropped his head, laying his chin against her neck. He could see the little puffs of her breath moving the grass beneath her face.

"I called you a dumb whore." His knees pressed hers farther apart.

"I called you a dumb whore and you didn't even blink." He stroked the insides of her thighs, so soft he could hardly feel them, callused from long years of hard living and harder work as his hands were.

"I called you a useless cooze and you all but laughed at me." He slipped just the tips of his fingers between them to trace her swollen lips and felt the torrential moisture there, just for him, only for him, his cock still buried deep within her, moving slowly in and out of her.

_Oh, honey. Oh, honey. Oh sweet honey all around me you feel so_…

"I insulted you at every turn and you barely frowned." With a groan he slid his hand around in front of her and flattened his palm against her drenched sex, coating his skin with her slick juices, feeling the thick base of his cock where her sweet body swallowed him into her.

"But I tell you I'm not a good man and you beat the shit out of me. Why?" He wrapped his fingers around one of her hips and tugged her back onto his length experimentally, letting out a shuddering breath against her back.

"Can't explain." She sucked in a breath as he withdrew only to sink deeper, stretching her delicate membranes as the thickest part of his shaft met and pressed past her swollen flesh.

"Can't or won't?" With just fingertips he stroked the skin surrounding her clit, using his thumb to press and dip over the tip, groaning as her walls danced around him, tight and demanding.

"Won't. When I understand it completely, then it'll be can't." She rocked back to meet his next thrust, a soft "Ah" escaping her lips.

"How come?" Merle sped up his movements, hooking an elbow under one of her knees to bring her leg up sideways so could see her in full. Everything was bared to him, from her glazed and reddened sex, which his fingers continued to strum, up her belly, taut and trembling. Higher still, where her shirt hung uselessly off her arms, half the buttons gone, her breasts shimmying under her vest, the softly rounded undersides burnished with a thin sheen of sweat.

"Oh Jesus, Merle, please don't…ah…don't stop. Because…ah…because you'll be gone and I'll be on my way to Canada."

"Fair enough." _This is the most fucked up conversation I've ever had_.

"Did I hurt you?" Even through her moans she sounded more curious than apologetic.

"Did you hur-" Merle laughed then, which screwed up his rhythm, so he fucked into her twice as hard a few times to make up for it. "Woman but you are a piece of work. No. Ah fuck, Ada. Hell no. Turned me on something awful, and confused the ever loving fuck outta me. But no, ya didn't hurt me." _As if a little thing like her could hurt me_. He didn't stop to think why his inner voice didn't sound as sure as it normally did.

Her hand reached blindly around, patting over him as he started to slam into her more brutally.

"Why in hell weren't you mad at me? I thought…oh, baby you feel good…thought you'd be mad as hell at me after I told you what I'd wanted to do to you."

Her hand found his jaw and, cupping it firmly, she used the purchase to bring her upper body around to face him, which changed the angle of penetration for him as her shoulders dropped to the ground. Her lower half was left up in the air and her thighs were slung over his hips, which drove mercilessly forward. She lost her grip on his jaw briefly, crying his name as he hung his head back in ecstasy, driving so deep he couldn't think for a moment.

"Couldn't…ah, Merle, right there, harder _please_…couldn't be mad at you when I wanted to do roughly the same to you." She reached her hand up to touch his face again, her eyes locking with his as her body was rocked by each push.

"Roughly huh." He slammed his hips forwards brutally to punctuate his words and she cried out in agonised pleasure.

"Don't you think it's about time? All that fighting, all day, with walkers, with each other…ah yes, please yes…" Her fingertips skittered on his skin in time with the fluttering he felt inside her.

"I need…shit Ada…I need more…" He was gasping for breath, trying to hang back far enough not to damage her.

"Then give me more." She slapped his cheek for attention. "Give me more, let me see you, I want to see your face while you give me what you need to."

"I…fuck…Ada I can't…I'll…I'll hurt yo-" She slapped him again.

"I want you to! Goddamnit, Merle, I want you. Shut up and fucking do it! _Do it!_" She scratched at him and he fell on her, plunging into her over and over, sinking his teeth into the side of her neck and his fingers into her hips.

She sobbed as he dove into her with a final plunge and her orgasm came crashing down around them both, twitching her muscles around his cock. Merle pressed lips and teeth against her throat one last time and roared as his own orgasm overtook him with a snap of his hips, pressing and falling into her clenching, spasming heat.

They were both lost in the aftermath for long minutes, clinging to each other like they were drowning, and maybe they were. Ada spoke first, pulling his head to lay on her breasts, her fingers stroking his skin over and over.

"Feel better?"

"Mmmph," he grunted incredulously against her sticky skin. She giggled.

"That's not what I mean. Did you get it out of your system? Do you understand now?"

Merle raised guilty eyes to hers, still expecting to be accused of losing control, of being no kind of a man for doing what he did to her.

"I guess. Kinda." He sure didn't have the energy to disagree with her just then.

"Well, good. How do you want your steak?" It took several seconds before the question registered.

"Huh? Don't you want to talk about what just happened?"

"I thought we already did that. You know…during." Her brow furrowed in confusion.

"You thought we just…that's it? You ain't gonna yell for half an hour and then throw things at me?"

Any of the women he'd ever been with would have changed the subject or walked away, or both, or accused him of being an asshole just for asking what seemed to him to be a goddamned pertinent question. Ada was an original, he had to give her that. She looked him dead in the eye.

_There's no sides to her_. _That's the carnival freak of personalities, rare and something you just don't know what the fuck to do with_.

"Uhm…I can if you'd like me to. But I'd rather just know how long I should cook your steak for."

"I'll do the damned steaks! And why in hell aren't you yelling at me? I figured…" Merle scrubbed a palm over his head in consternation.

"Figured what?"

"Ada I just….what I did…Jesus how could I do that…why….why don't you hate me?"

"Oh that."

"Yes oh that!" _Is she for fucking real right now?!_

"I already said I'd wanted to do the same. It'd be a bit hypocritical to hate you considering you only did what I wanted you to, what I told you to."

"Come again?"

"Give it an hour or so." She winked and he flopped his face back down against her breasts, too exhausted to even appreciate that properly. "What? It's a normal reaction. Maybe more aggressive for a man than a woman, but yeah, I needed it, needed you."

_She should not be trying to make me feel better about this. I forced…I made her…I'm a…_

"Don't you carry on thinking whatever it is that's making you look like that. I can see the cogs turning and you reaching the wrong goddamn conclusion. You didn't make me do anything. That need, that urge to hold me down and fuck me senseless," _OK, stop talking now or we're gonna be right back at square one only nakeder._ "was about protecting me not hurting me."

_This is going to go one of two ways…or one of one ways if she doesn't stop moving her hands like that. Fuck._

"How? How could it be?"

"We might be a man and a woman but we're also a female animal and a male animal. You saved me from the walker, and it was a close enough shave that you needed to show me in the most basic way possible, with your body, your weight and your strength, that you could protect me, that you had. And I needed to show you that you did a good job doing it."

"But I was…and there's bruises…"

"And hopefully a nice big bite mark, too. Yeah that was a good one." She searched over her neck for it and stroked it, closing her eyes. She opened them with a smile and tickled behind his ears with her fingertips.

_Ah…hands…hands in new places…keep that going…right there…_

"You need to stop moving right now or we aren't gonna get anywhere near any food until tomorrow," growled Merle, his hands clenched at her sides into fists so tight that his knuckles showed up bone white.

"And?" It was a challenge. He didn't answer, just looked up, meeting her challenge with his own.

"I don't know why you're fighting it, but let me ask you one thing, and really think about the answer. You don't know me inside out by any stretch of the imagination, but from what you do know, do you honestly think that I would, for one second, have even considered making this deal with a man I didn't really and truly _want_?"

Clouds settled into Merle's mind as it focused on the one word in there that made his entire body tighten with need. _Want_. The silence stretched out and he kneaded her hips thoughtfully as he turned it over in his mind. She was forthright and could look after herself. She could likely crook her finger at any man that took her fancy and have him come running, so was it realistic to think that she'd have settled? There was only one answer he could give her.

"No." She nodded wordlessly and waited for him to make the next move.

He staggered to his feet, pulling her up with him, then reached forward and fingered a curl of her hair before looking into her eyes. Without a word he picked her up and carried her to the cab of the truck, shoving her inside. She moved behind the seats to the sleeping compartment where a bed lay, sheets half unmade. He shut the door and stood before her, unmoving. She half reached out a hand to touch him but at the look in his eyes faltered and let her arm fall back to her side uneasily.

_Finally, a normal reaction_.

Merle's whole frame was vibrating with the potential of the moment and he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remain in control.

"Will you _quit it!_" she spat at him, starting to get pissed off again. "Stop trying to gentle yourself, I don't want it. Not tonight." His eyes snapped open, his own temper coming to the fore.

"I'll hurt yo-"

"I told you already. I want you to!" she interrupted with a shout. She was starting to pant, swinging between angry and turned on. "You fuck me and you bite me and you mark me goddamned good so when you see them tomorrow it's easier to pretend I'm yours."

"Who says I'll be pretending?" he snarled.

_You want the real deal, honey, you got it._

The way Merle moved toward her was predatory and her body reacted like prey, readying to fight or flee. He wouldn't allow it, grabbing her upper arms and held her steady while he bent his face to her neck and inhaled, slowly imprinting the scent of her on his senses. He heard her breath catch and small tremors started running through her body. He thrust his thigh up between hers and pressed it against her bare and still tender sex, making her fingers curl into the fabric of his now low slung pants as he murmured against her skin.

"I need you naked."

"Then make me that way."

The shirt and vest were gone in under a second and he bore her down onto the bed with a groan.

* * *

><p><strong>OK so I will tell you guys what I told Caffiend04 while I was partway through writing this, and hope it doesn't spoil the mood for you. You know how Merle's internal voice, the italics, shows up here and there? Well I originally wrote him getting all possessive during sex and peppered the entire scene with the word <em>Mine<em>. I reread it and all I could think of was the seagulls in Finding Nemo who say 'Mine. Mine. Mine mine mine mine.' It took me almost an hour to stop laughing. :D So yeah, had to edit that out. ROFL**


	6. Chapter 6 - Sola

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Have started naming the chapters as I don't know how long this thing is gonna get.**

_**That's what she said**_**.**

**Shut it, Merle.**

**Merle/OC pairing. Well that last chapter might get pulled for being explicit, if so PM me for a copy. But even if it does, I've done what it's taken me almost seven years of working up to it to do, written a sex scene. So, even if it wasn't the best, am pretty proud of myself for actually getting through it. I'm usually squeamish and awkward about it, which is why it's taken so long to get up the courage to write one. But Merle is one hell of a muse, so you can blame him for chapter five.**

**Guest reviewer: thank you so much for your review :) and don't worry, I have no intention of doing that ;)**

**Caffiend04: thank you for keeping me inspired, motivated and for naming a certain new character ;) Not all that sorry about the seagulls though. :P**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Diamond Rio - Beautiful mess**

**Bic Runga & Semisonic - Good morning baby**

**Chapter 06 - Sola**

Ada was fast asleep - _she's earned it I reckon_ - so Merle got up, and dressed as well as he could without his t-shirt. He rounded up the horses and strung up their fence, making sure it was live and they were safe inside its perimeter before adding more wood to the fire. He found potatoes in the wooden box the steaks were still sitting on and poked some of them into the embers around the outside of the fire. They would both need the energy.

_I still smell like her. From head to toe I smell like her, and her like me_.

He walked over to the horses, where Thunderchild was keeping watch over them all and the mare, who was fretful and restless, paced the fence continually. Merle was glad that he'd grabbed one of his blades to keep near the fire, as it was always possible that she could smell something he couldn't. Thunderchild, on the other hand, was decidedly chilled out. He took a great deal of interest in the fact that Merle now smelled so much of Ada. His idea of welcoming him to the family was to lay his enormous head on his shoulder and whiffle thoughtfully every few minutes.

"Thanks, amigo. Guess you're a little short on male company huh?" He ruffled the horse between the ears. "Just you, your family and your momma. How long has she been alone like this? Long time, I reckon. Too long."

_Is she damaged? Has she gone crazy from loneliness and that's why she can stand to be around me?_

"Damn." He looked down and clenched a fist to stop a tremble in his hand. "I was hoping it'd take longer before that started. Ain't had none of my pharmaceutical friends to keep me coasting for over a day now. I know she has stuff in there, medical supplies. But I won't ask her for them. She's asked me to be a good man to her for just one day. And that's what I'll give her. She won't be none the wiser, and can go live the rest of her life thinking that she met a good man on the way there. I don't know who wants that more, her or me."

A small groan from the mare interrupted his train of thought. His first impulse was to scan the area for walkers, but could see nothing. So he slipped under the wire into the enclosure and made his way over to her.

"You OK there, girl? You sick?" He was running a hand down her neck when he felt the muscles tense as hard as rock and noticed her shift her hind legs farther apart. "Well…shit. That time already huh?"

_I should get Ada. Her horses, her mess to deal with._

He turned toward the rig where she slept and was half under the wire before he realised.

_Sleep…she's so tired…wait…why am I giving a shit about that?_

He sighed and turned back to the mare, who had hung her head low and was straining, her flanks already showing a film of sweat.

_Maybe I could just…and fetch her if something goes wrong…_

"Come on then, girl. Let's get you comfortable. I've done this plenty before and I don't think your baby wants to wait much longer." He led her very slowly so she was on the thick patch of rushes for when standing became too much. "I'm gonna get some rope in case it gets stuck. You just keep...doing what you're doing."

He stalked back to the trailer, opening it as quietly as possible and grabbed two of the lead ropes. As an afterthought he scooped up a folded up dust sheet. The afterbirth would have to be removed far from the camp as swiftly as possible or the smell would attract unwelcome guests looking for a snack. He checked in on Ada before returning to the mare. She was only semi covered by a sheet and he tucked the rest over her.

_Not getting soft. Just don't need the temptation right now_.

He brushed a finger over the stark bruises on her shoulders, remembering the wildcat he'd taken on the mattress only hours ago. He had as many marks and bites on his own body as she did, and he had to admit, he liked them. He liked them a lot. But they bothered him, too. Even in the throes of violent possession, there'd been an evident tenderness with which she'd hurt him.

She slept on and he exited as quietly as he came, taking the ropes and dust sheet over to the horses' enclosure. He could have imagined it but he thought the mare's snort of greeting seemed relieved. He hunkered down next to her and ran a practised hand along her belly. The baby was in the right position but it was damned big. The mare had things in hand and dropped onto her knees so she could lower herself onto the bed of rushes.

_Playing wetnurse now, huh, Merle?_

This would take as long as it took, and there'd be plenty of warning if things weren't going so well, so Merle took himself back to the campfire to get something to eat. He used the machete to turn two straightish branches into spikes at one end and skewered the steaks on them, hanging them in front of the flames. They started to spit and hiss immediately, dripping juices onto the embers, which created the most wonderful aroma, one he'd missed out on for far too long. His stomach agreed with a sharp growl.

He kept an eye on the mare from where he sat, turning the steaks so they cooked evenly; she was going along quietly and in no additional distress. He'd eat quickly, though, so as not to waste the food if she needed help. He liked his meat rare but didn't know about Ada so left hers longer after he removed his from the flames.

The potatoes were blackened on the outside but revealed creamy, virgin flesh as he split two open. He squeezed his steak over them, letting the juices fall, cursing as it burnt his hand but not caring. He ate the steak like a man possessed, tearing at it between scooping bites of potato into his mouth.

_Hot damn but that's good. If it wasn't for the end of the world, the company and food'd make me think I was on vacation_.

He licked most of the juices off his hands and wiped the rest on the leg of his pants, then settled back to doze, keeping one ear open for a sign from the mare that he was needed. The full stomach and earlier exertions put him to sleep harder than anticipated, as the stars had moved a good way across the sky when he was jolted awake by an urgent whinny from behind him. He didn't waste time and got his ass over to the horses' enclosure.

_Shit_.

The foal was part out, head first thank God, but was stuck because of its size. The mare was doing her best but it wouldn't be enough if the shoulders or hips were hung up inside her on the pubic bone. Only the very tips of the front hooves showed, but rope had to be tied around them in a certain way so it didn't do any damage to the bones or tendons. Merle couldn't pull on the rope without finding out if the forelegs were freely mobile or not, though, so he checked and rechecked his knots before turning his attention to the mare.

"Hey, good girl, how's about we get this done so you and your baby can rest up before morning?" He stroked her flank and slowly started to slide along the foal's neck. He used the arm with the most cuts on it and a bite where Ada had broken the skin because he knew that the environment inside the mare right now was so strongly acidic that it would kill off infection better than antibiotics. Country lore; if you get a nasty cut on your hand or arm, put it in a calving cow or a mare in foal.

_Ah…it's shoulders not hips that's hung up. That's damn good news. Come here, sweetheart, we'll get you out in a jiffy_.

The foal stirred a little, squirming as Merle manipulated its shoulders inside the mare, dislodging them from behind her sizable pubic girdle and pulling the forelegs farther forward. He started an easy but steady pressure on the rope and the mare responded to the sensation by heaving her sides in a huge push. Two more and a not so little black filly lay on the rushes at Merle's feet.

_Well there go Ada's plans for another stallion to raise up. Still, it's a pretty thing, all black except for that spray of little white stars on her chest_.

He scrubbed the foal with handfuls of straw to stimulate her nervous system and tended to the mare until she delivered the afterbirth, which he wrapped up in several layers of the dust sheet. He didn't like leaving the horses for so long but it had to be done, so with a flaming branch from the fire as a torch and his machete in his belt he marched off down the hill with the wrapped up dust sheet.

The woods were dark and silent except for the nocturnal calls of the animals. No growls or stumbling footsteps could be heard, which made Merle feel a sight easier. He waded across the lowest part of the river, which was still chest height, and shivered as he clambered out the other side.

_This was not my best laid plan. Fuck me twice it's dark_.

When he got far enough away that he couldn't see the hill he'd walked down, he dumped the bundle and started back. But passed a shadow that was big enough and strange enough that it pricked at his curiosity. He pulled the machete and walked toward it, a wooden house with broken windows illuminated by his torch. Just the kind that might have some interesting items to loot.

It didn't take long to find a way in; the back door hadn't been locked after whoever had inhabited it had either died or left. Or both. He couldn't bring the flaming torch inside but found a flashlight easily enough. There was a utility room off the kitchen that yielded some ammunition and a pair of quality hatchets that he knew his brother would like. He'd shown Daryl how to split Ace cards stuck on blocks of wood when they were young, hatchets thrown overhand with deadly accuracy. Of course their daddy had beat them both for touching his only pack of cards.

"Anybody home?" he whispered as he eased a door open. A living room with dusty sofas and sideboards. And a liquor cabinet. "Well Aces to me, baby brother. I done found myself a stash." He rifled through the bottles. "What in hell is this shit? Creme de Menthe? Who even drinks that. And some…ooh. Single malt. Come to poppa. Ima treat you real nice, baby."

Here and there he'd find something that interested him. It all went in the kitchen while he went off in search of other things. He'd given himself half an hour to look, seeing as he needed to get back to the horses. He found the mother lode upstairs in the bedrooms. Not so much for him, but things he knew Ada would appreciate.

_Hell it ain't even sunrise yet and I'm thinking like her bitch_.

His internal chiding didn't stop him roving calculating eyes over the fresh linens, clothes, shoes and other luxuries that filled the two large and almost immaculately clean rooms. And the bathroom was fully stocked. Nothing interesting in the medicine cabinet, nothing that spoke to his love of fine chemicals, anyway. But there were bags of disposable razors and bars of soap, shampoos and waxing strips - _let's take a few seconds here to think about how fine Ada would look with a Brazilian_ - and even some hair dyes.

"Crimson Harlot? Black Knight? Who in hell dyes their hair Crimson Harlot and Black Knight? Goddamned emo kids."

_Running outta time here. Gotta get back. Hate to leave this shit but I can't carry much of it across the river_.

Merle had a small epiphany. Thunderchild could easily carry everything he'd found here back to the trailer. Probably in only one trip. Although…the beds looked awfully well made and there was more than room in the trailer to take them. Expensive looking, too, and - _holy shit I think my spine just had a orgasm_ - comfortable. Might at least be worth finding a way to filch the mattresses.

He stuffed his smaller finds into a garbage bag and grabbed his torch from where he'd stuck it into the ground, making his way back a little more quickly than before. With hands full again, a quick trip was better than being surprised without his weapon already drawn. As he neared the top of the hill, he subconsciously relaxed, the glow from the fire still there, just not as bright as it had been.

_Shit. I hope she likes her steak well done. Forgot that bastard amidst all the giving birth_.

"How's it going, kids?" he asked the horses. Thunderchild stood guard over Boudicca and her new baby while Mammon poked his new sibling with his nose. Every time he did she'd fall on her ass and wriggle comically as she tried to get back on her feet. "Falls over a lot, don't she?" Mammon snorted as if to say 'You think?' He slipped under the fence and gave mother and child the once over.

"Looking good there, kiddo. Yeah, you're a good momma, and your little girl is a sweet one. But let's get the two of you into that trailer where you can be safe. She doesn't know well enough yet not to go rolling under the fence and there's things out there that'd think she smelled like breakfast."

Merle took one link of the fence away and slipped a rope around the little filly and the other end around her mother's neck. She'd go gentler being led by her momma than by him. Boudicca didn't seem to mind his proximity, and nuzzled him a little violently before allowing herself to be lead up the ramp into the safety of the trailer.

"Hey. I'm not yer boyfriend. He's big enough to take that crap. I ain't. Cut it out."

By the time he'd settled them both and shut up the big doors again, the dark sky had lightened a couple shades, obvious sign that night was slipping away and morning approaching. He could have slept some more, but he wanted to show Ada the new foal before the sun came up. He wasn't sure why - _really her and really me_ - but it felt right. He settled for a seat by the fire, onto which he threw more wood, and a little thinking.

_What does she want from me for this day of hers? I ain't a gentleman, but she's a lady alright, for all that she's got balls bigger'n most fellas I know and can fight like the devil. She picked me. That's specific. So I can't be here to be some fantasy I've never heard about, but I can be the best version of me I can find in here. Supermerle. Heh_.

He liberated his last cigarette from his pants pocket and lit it in the flames, leaning back on the big log with his feet just on the edge of the fire's bright heat.

_Those books of my mama's, the ones that were stacked behind my daddy's porno collection in the garage, the ones he beat me seven ways from Sunday for reading. They were about the kind of loving that a woman wants. Maybe that's why he covered them up with magazines about the kind of 'love' he thought was the only kind worth getting, not that I'd consider that worthless sumbitch a man._

_Some of them were kinda steamy. Made me feel sorry for my mama even more than I already did, being married to a man who never would have understood that he needed to engage her brain as well as her…well that's something I don't need to be thinking about my mama. The ones she loved the most, though, the ones with the covers torn and the pages almost falling out, were the ones about…gentle people with big but gentle feelings_.

He tilted his head thoughtfully. The people in those books were quiet about showing their feelings, too. Not like they were ashamed about having them, but like they knew how big their feelings were to each other and didn't need to go around telling everyone about them or spending every moment they had complimenting each other on having a big dick or a great rack.

_Understated_.

And the men who won the women's hearts were men who weren't special, or brilliant, or even all of them dashingly handsome. They had simply listened to what their women liked, and told them they were important, and they liked things about them that weren't obvious, like the books that she read and the opinions she had or that she was kind to people.

_Ada's kind, about the kindest person I ever met. Can be harsh showing it, painful even, but she means it all the same_.

And so he decided that he could be gentle for her, and take notice of the things about her that were worth noticing. And halfway through he forgot why he was deciding to do those things and for how long. He looked down at his shaking hands and thought that they were worth it.

_But I'm unworthy_.

Soon there was enough light to see by without the fire. No sun yet, but navy was becoming cerulean, and cerulean became cornflower. And the Morning Star hung over the trailer as the rest of the stars winked out one by one. He stood and made his way over to the rig's cabin.

Ada was still peaceful, eyes closed over whatever dreams she was having. He stroked a hand down one arm and folded their fingers together.

"Ada."

She mumbled and moved a little before the pressure of his touch and the fact that he had spoken registered. Her fingers tightened when they realised they were wrapped around his.

"Ada, it's time to get up?"

"Is it morning?" He tried to ignore what it did to his insides when she scrubbed one eye with the hell of her fist and yawned.

"Almost. The sun's not up yet. But I have a surprise for you before it does. Where do you keep your clothes?"

"Uh…in that cupboard there." She pointed groggily and Merle reached into the cupboard and handed her a sweatshirt and some jeans.

He watched as she pulled them on, counting the bruises on her body. He chose to follow her lead and feel proud of them being there. She liked them well enough; who was he to argue with a smart woman?

_Woman has her goddamned PhD for Christ's sakes. If she says she likes them, fuck it, like them back_.

Merle led Ada to the back of the trailer and covered her eyes as he swung the doors open one handed. Her indrawn breath when she spied the new addition to her family was soft and full of unspoken emotion.

"Oh my God. Merle, oh my God. Were you awake when this happened?" Her hand clutched his arm and she bounced on the balls of her feet with a little squeak.

"Yup. I cooked us some dinner thinking to wake ya. Kinda fucked up your steak. Sorry 'bout that. Then the foal got caught inside her and she needed some help getting it out."

"You delivered it? Are you serious?" He'd done it simply because it needed to be done, but her wide, delighted smile was a reward he hadn't thought to expect. He simply nodded, pleased that she was pleased. "Is it a girl or a boy?"

"It's a little filly. Silly and pretty as can be. Her momma's very proud, as she should be."

"I know I was hoping for a colt but, honestly, I couldn't be happier, even though it'll change my plans some. Bou has been outnumbered two to one for a while now. It's kinda nice that she'll have some female company for a change." She smiled as she thought of something. "You should name her."

"Me?" Merle was shocked, but not exactly unhappy about the idea. "You sure? What if I choose something you don't like."

"Well, I guess she won't care one way or the other." She giggled and stuck her tongue out at him as he feigned hurt feelings.

"Now that you mention it, I do have an idea. She has those pretty white stars sprinkled on her shoulder and chest just there like a constellation. And the Morning Star was hanging over the trailer just before I woke you. See," he pointed. "It's still there. She could be called Sola. It's from the Norse, means daughter of the Morning Star."

Ada looked at him with an expression he couldn't fathom, and wasn't sure he wanted to, as nervous as that particular gaze made him.

"I think it's perfect." She nodded, her face still unreadable.

They both saw the change in the light as the sun came over the horizon at that moment.

_Time for Supermerle, I reckon_.

Merle stepped close and pulled at Ada with one arm around her waist. The other hand he brought to her heart shaped face, cupping one side of it and skimming his thumb beneath the curve of her eyelashes. He stopped breathing as she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek into his palm. She looked up at him then, her grey eyes full of something he didn't have a word for, searching for something. He gave it to her, and brought his mouth to hers as tenderly as he knew how.

"Good morning, Ada."

* * *

><p><strong>Was listening to Bic Runga's Good morning baby while writing this. It goes awesome with the last scene :D Enjoy.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7 - Sunrise

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. **

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Fleetwood Mac - Steal your heart away**

**Oh Susanna - Alabaster**

**Chapter 07 - Sunrise**

Merle carried a laughing Ada above the water as he waded through the river he'd crossed the night before. Thunderchild plodded behind them with sacks strapped across his back. He could have carried them both easily, but Merle had insisted on carrying her and her smile told him it had been the right call. The only time it faltered in surprise was when he'd flung open the door of the house and carried her over the threshold before setting her gently on her feet.

_She's wondering if I know what that means. Well, let's let her keep wondering_.

"Come with me." He led her upstairs. "Wait right here for just a moment. I am hoping that I have a surprise for you. I'll be right back."

He hopped back down the stairs two at a time and made sure Thunderchild was OK before going to the utility room. He daren't tie him up, and figured he'd stay close until they came out and would give them plenty of warning if any walkers appeared. He'd taken off the sacks and left them in the kitchen, though, as they'd have a lot to carry later.

Electricity was patchy but as far as he knew gas lines were unimpaired and would be for some time to come. Keeping his fingers crossed he pumped the valve on the boiler and set a match to it. Nothing. Another pump, another match, and suddenly he was looking at a pilot flame burning steadily. _Hallelujah!_ He set the heat at maximum and raced back upstairs, where he found Ada looking at him quizzically, although she hadn't moved.

"It worked. Come with me. We're going to have a hot bath." He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, spinning them around.

"Are you kidding me?!" Ada cried, laughing as she pummelled his back with her small fists for him to let her down, which he did. "Merle, that's wonderful." She hugged him tightly. _Well that's new_. He hugged her back, trying to make it easy, not awkward. _Ain't no place for awkward today and ain't no-one else gonna see us so it don't matter_.

Ada found towels and started the water running into the bath while Merle went to fetch something from one of the bedrooms. He returned with a hairbrush, which she took with a grin and started working through her tangled curls. They'd been pretty enough anyway, but watching her brush them out, Merle realised there was more of it than he'd thought. The curl and tangles must have taken about eight inches off the length and he ran the brushed out strands through his fingers while she worked on the rest.

_I want to see you with nothing on and all this spread out around you_.

As she finished, he took off his pants and the t-shirt she'd had to loan him and stepped into the now deep water. He sat down in it with a groan and held out a hand to her.

"Sit in front. I'm gonna take care of you." She made short work of her own clothes and dipped a toe in the water. He loved the goosebumps that flashed over her entire body at the sensation. Her eyes closed as she stepped into the water and he pulled her around so that her back was to him, his hands on her hips. He kissed the dimples above her buttocks and pulled her down to sit in front of him in the water. Her hair swirled around her so he dragged it all into one fist and draped it over one of her shoulders so he could kiss the other.

"Oh. Oh God. That feels good. I haven't had a hot bath in months." He felt her stretch her limbs, knowing exactly how she felt.

"Likewise," he said, picking up a large sponge and dipping it into the scalding water before dragging it across her shoulder to her chest. "What did you mean when you said the little filly is gonna change your plans?" He trickled water over her breasts and stroked the sponge over them with infinite care, loving her little gasp.

"I can't travel now. I should have been in Canada and far past the threat of towns and cities by the time she was born." He felt her run her hands over the outsides of his thighs as she spoke, a comfortable touch rather than a sensual one. "She's not safe inside the fence and I can't drive for long periods with her in the trailer; it'd upset her too much. She won't be ready to travel for at least a month." She sounded resigned.

"She's lucky you care about doing what's best for her. What will you do instead? Stay here?" He pulled her back to dip her hair in the water and started rubbing shampoo into her hair as she spoke.

"Maybe. I could find an abandoned farm, but the plateau on top of the hill is safer, easier to defend. Unless I get surrounded by walkers. Then I'd have nowhere to go; it'd be fight or fight." There wasn't much to say to that so he kept quiet, watching her run her little fingers over his skin. "Thank you for taking care of things last night. I know you could have woken me."

"I almost did. Came into the cab to check, figured if you weren't sleeping deep I'd get you up to come see to them. But the way you looked, all peaceful, I just wanted to sit and look at you. Made me feel peaceful, too. So I went and saw to the mare so at least one of us could sleep." She nodded and he dipped her again to get rid of the shampoo. She reached for another bottle and slathered some creamy stuff all over her hair and twisted it into a rope to lay it back over her shoulder again.

"Where did you get this?" he asked, fingering a long scar that scooped around her shoulder blade. An angry pink, it only looked three or four weeks old at most.

"The men who attacked me…the one who pushed me to the ground did that. Had a big hunting knife, the serrated kind, dug it in me to hold me down while he tried to…well it doesn't matter." Her hand squeezed Merle's as he let out a low growl.

"The way you told it, I thought your horse had killed them before they did anything."

"He stopped the others from getting to me. But the first guy…"

"Is damn lucky he's already dead."_ The things I'd have liked to have done to him_.

"He might not be." She looked down at their hands.

"Explain." Merle's voice was a snarl and barely controlled.

"Out of all of them, I think he was the only one that could have survived." She leaned back on his chest and swished her knees through the water.

"What do you mean? Either he's alive or he ain't." He was having trouble staying calm. If there was a man out there that had tried to rape Ada he was going to die as soon as Merle could make it so. _We're getting attached enough to make plans for revenge now?_

"He crawled out of the pile once Thunder had finished with them. He'd lost an eye, but he looked at me with the good one long enough to give me the shivers. Then he started crawling into the woods. There were walkers only a hundred yards away from him, so they probably got him. But…I don't know. He was just…different. Worse. Enough so that I'm not making the classic movie mistake of assuming he's dead only to have him pop up later and find out I'm an expendable extra after all, you know?"

_Not expendable. Important. Necessary_.

"Are you worried that he's going to come after you?" She mutely nodded.

"Don't," he said flatly.

"If he did make it back to wherever they came from, I don't think he'll forgive me for what he lost. He and men like him are one of the reasons I decided to go far North to the wilds of Canada."

"I said don't worry." He crossed his arms tightly over her waist for emphasis. She was silent for a moment before turning her head far enough to look at him.

"You're going to kill him, aren't you?" He nodded and was surprised by the small kiss she placed at the corner of his mouth. She looked…proud.

"Good." Merle smiled. He still liked her tendency to be blunt above everything else. _Maybe that's one of the things you should be telling her, moron_.

"I like that you say what you think. No sides. No shades of meaning within shades of meaning." He shook his head minutely, still frustrated by all the levels of unspoken subtle interaction there had been within the group, levels he'd not been able to grasp. Why couldn't people just say what they meant and mean what they said? But maybe if they had, he wouldn't have ended up on that roof, or here, with her.

"Never had much patience for playing games. There's no point in it at all now. I like that about you, too. It's one of my favourite things." She traced circles on his thigh with a fingernail as his heart thumped painfully in his chest. _She has favourite things about me?_

"Can we go in the bedroom later and find out what else are our favourite things?" He sucked gently on the side of her neck, slipping hands up to squeeze her breasts firmly and pinch at her nipples. He knew from last night that she liked attention paid to her whole breasts and not just the tender tips. _Never met a woman so responsive. She made me dizzy with how much she enjoyed me touching her_.

"Mmhmm. Loot first, though. And you need to wash. I'm the only one clean so far. Switch with me," she said, shimmying under the water to rinse her hair, then rising up out of it.

Ada stepped one leg over his shoulder as he scooted forward. Merle decided not to pass up this golden opportunity and took a long lick between her legs, holding her other thigh up, his fingers stroking the soft skin. She was almost flavourless, her skin having been soaked clean by the water, except for the new moisture that had gathered so quickly it made his head spin.

"Merle," she moaned, steadying herself with a hand on his shoulder as he reached his other arm up and around her to place his hand flat on her back.

He dove his tongue into her again and again, wanting to imprint the novelty of her fresh out of the water taste onto his senses. He wouldn't make her come yet, just make her shiver a bit and listen to her breath quicken. He still wanted to see her on one of those beds with her hair all around her and her head thrown back as he took her slowly. He let her leg down gently, helping her settle down behind him, feeling a little smug about the fact that her legs now trembled as if they wouldn't have been able to keep her standing.

_Shit_.

He'd forgotten about his scars until she felt her legs wind past his hips and her palms press flat against his back, exploring. She must have felt his muscles go rigid. When she had finished brushing her fingers across all the gnarls and ridges of scar tissue she wrapped her arms around him and laid her chin on his shoulder. Her embrace was tight, possessive and comforting at the same time.

"I don't know if we'll be in each other's company long enough for me to say it as many times as it would take for you to believe me. But, Merle, you're a dozen different kinds of beautiful to me. And your scars are just one of them."

He said nothing as she picked up the sponge and started to do for him what he had done for her. Her touch was firm, maybe because she wasn't repulsed to touch him after seeing his back. He closed his eyes and let himself mull over the things that she saw in him. _Goodness. Beauty_. If she was right, was it wrong to refuse to believe that they could be there? If she was wrong, was it right not to spoil her misconception by arguing with her over it?

_I want her to be right. More than I remember wanting anything. But what if…she's right…and there's good in me…but she's the only one who can find it? What if I never can? A man who can't find his own goodness is no different than a man who's nothing but bad all the way through._

She was right about one thing. It would take longer than they had together to believe her. But he could compromise and give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Ada?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"Any time, soldier." She kissed the back of his neck softly and rose out of the water behind him to step out of the bath and pad silently to the bedroom.

He found her standing by the bed, rubbing her hair with a towel. He bent and stripped the bed swiftly, spreading new linens onto it with an efficiency born in the military.

"Not yet." He'd caught her smirk as she eyed the bed. "Get dressed first so we can make a trip back to camp with supplies. I want the pleasure of undressing you when we get back."

The clothes they found in the closets were a mixture of male and female. The men's were a good fit on Merle, but the women's swamped Ada.

"Try the other room?" She nodded and flitted off to check out the other bedroom.

"Jackpot," she cried from the other room. "I'm going to need one of those sacks in here."

Merle ran downstairs and grabbed a sack from the kitchen before making his way up to the smaller bedroom. He had meant to say something when he opened the door but forgot what it was as soon as he looked inside and instead stood there, speechless. Ada was walking around the room wearing a white, cotton dress with thin straps that reached to just above her knees and swung around her as she moved. Her hair, curling as it dried, was falling around her shoulders and as she moved toward the window, the sun shone through the dress, showing her body in perfect silhouette.

_Beautiful_.

He leant against the door frame and watched her without speaking. He didn't know how many of the things going through his head would sound stupid if he said them aloud, words like _angel_ and _mine_. He cleared his throat, adjusting his pants discreetly.

"That looks pretty on you." _Coward_. "I mean…you look pretty in it." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and switched his weight from one foot to another, trying to hide the fact that she'd struck him almost dumb. The only saving grace was that she was looking at him, in the black jeans and shirt he'd found, in much the same way as he thought he must be looking at her.

"Likewise." So, she was just as much lost for words. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. He couldn't hide his grin at that. "There's a ton of clothes here that'll fit me. I'm going to take as many as I can, as well as the toiletries. Are you going to take anything?"

"Yeah. A lot of the men's clothes will do for me. And some of the hardware downstairs will be useful."

They packed the sacks full to bursting and hung them from Thunderchild's sides. He'd been happily lazing under a tree but seemed pleased to be going back to the camp. They sat on him long enough to cross the river, then dismounted and strolled up the side of the hill with arms around each other. Thunderchild was divested of his burden and the sacks placed in the back of the trailer.

"Are we gonna ride him back to the house?" Ada nodded. "Then we should take extra weapons with us and send him back here where he can keep an ear on his family in the trailer. It's not fair to make him wait for us with them left here."

"That sounds like a good idea. Just means we'll get dirty coming back across the river again later."

"Woman, I was planning on getting you plenty dirty again anyway," Merle said with a grin, swinging her into his arms and kissing her soundly.

"Well, when you put it that way." She smiled and grabbed her longbow and arrows and his two machetes from the rig.

Thunderchild took them back to the house and was sent packing back to camp with a slap on his rump. Ada tried to encourage Merle into the house in the same manner and just got thrown over his shoulder with a laugh. But the teasing ceased when they reached the bedroom and then for each other.

_I've never done this before. Probably never will again_.

Merle slipped one of the thin straps down over Ada's shoulder, brushing her long hair out the way, then the other. There was something about removing this thin slip of a dress from her body that was more erotic than anything he'd ever known. Her own hands worked at the buttons of his shirt and she kissed every inch of him that she uncovered. He rid himself of his jeans quickly and picked her up in his arms, gently laying her on the bed, moving to lie next to her instead of over her.

He spent an eternity stroking and licking, nibbling and sucking, finding out what made her gasp, what made that pretty blush rush over her whole body as she begged him not to stop touching her. He cupped her backside in one hand, marvelling at its perfect roundness, trailed fingertips up the indent of her spine only to bring his hand around to brush the undersides of her breasts. The little dip in her hip where the skin was so soft he almost couldn't tell it was there was one of his favourite places. There was something about kissing her there that made it feel like maybe she wouldn't disappear on him when the day was done.

Ada took her own time touching him. She enjoyed playing with temperatures, licking him then blowing gently until goosebumps appeared. Then kissing them away. She found the sensitive spot behind his ear, and loved placing tender kisses on his belly. She seemed to gravitate to that same soft spot on his hips, sucking it and licking it with the flat of her tongue while her fingers stroked the velvety skin of his cock. His body responded to hers with the same aching neediness that hers did to him and even if he couldn't verbalise it, he knew that it was because it was her and no-one else.

"I have never made love before." He stroked her face as her unguarded eyes stayed locked on his, serene and serious, her fingers gently brushing his jaw. He peppered his words with soft kisses. "And I likely never will again after today. I don't know what it will mean to you to hear that, but if I'm giving you this part of me that no-one else has ever had, you might as well know it."

"I haven't either. And I'm glad it's with you." She reached her arm around his back and drew him closer, reaching up with soft lips to graze his throat.

"You are? Nothing to do with you having favourite things about me is it?" He smiled.

"Maybe." She kissed along his jaw as he threaded his fingers into her hair, spreading the gold strands all around her like a halo. "But I was thinking about that, and there were so many favourite things about you, that in the end I decided that maybe it's just that you're my favourite person."

Merle couldn't speak after that, not without choking on the emotions running through him, as alien to him as they were. So he pushed her onto her back and slid into her slowly, wrapping her legs around his hips and taking her mouth with his in the same rhythm with which he took her body. Her gaze never left his as he pumped slowly into her, hooking his arms behind her knees to spread her open to him. He felt cherished and utterly vulnerable at the same time as they both looked down to watch as her fingers played over her slick flesh where it met his shaft.

_We fit together. We were made to fit together_.

He started to move faster, plunging into her, watching the effect on her as her cheeks flushed and her lips parted, her little pink tongue flickering as she lost the ability to speak anything more than his name. Her body was alight with a constant, buzzing tremble, but he found that his was as well. Every part of him seemed to be trying to get closer to her and as he eased in deeper with a groan, her eyes shot to his. The searing look she gave him was nothing short of incandescent and his heart felt as if it would burst in his chest. She and he and the two of them together were everything and nothing and the same thing all at once.

_Is this what it is to love someone? I never knew. I never knew!_

"Open your eyes." He didn't realise that he had closed them. "I want you to watch me while I come, and I want you to look at me while you do."

He felt her body lift off the bed in time with his strokes as her walls started to tighten on his shaft. He moved faster, harder, deeper, and watched as her movement started to lose cohesion. She was chanting his name over and over and he saw and felt the exact moment when she fell apart in his arms.

"Merle!" A shudder and her walls gripped him so hard his hips jerked forward like a piston to greet them. He flooded her then, sobbing her name as he lost himself in her. He felt for long moments as if he were floating as they jerked together with no rhythm, before falling weightlessly with his face at her throat. He kissed it, over and over.

"Ada. I…"

Her arms came up around his neck and she kissed the words out of his mouth. Words he couldn't say but meant all the same.

It felt like a long time before they came round, cocooned in a soundless bubble. Merle kissed his way down her body before lifting himself off the bed. He watched her as she lay there dozing contentedly and smiled. He needed to check outside, though, and pulled the covers over her, putting on his jeans so he could go downstairs.

He'd barely stepped off the front porch when he heard movement nearby. He cursed and reached inside the door for his machete but didn't have time to raise it.

"Drop the blade and step out where I can see you." That voice…

He did as he was told, looking around to try and find where it was coming from.

"God fucking damnit. I should have known." Merle heard footsteps in the forest floor behind him and spun around to find himself face to face with a crossbow bolt.

His insulting reply was cut off as he heard the door creak.

"How about you put down the crossbow and turn around so I can see _you_. If that bolt so much as twitches in his direction I will kill you." Ada's voice was ice cold and deathly serious, as was the gaze she trained on the man between them, who obediently turned to face her, although the crossbow didn't lower an inch.

Not that she didn't look beyond magnificent, standing naked in the forest like some kind of warrior queen with her longbow drawn and an arrow nocked, ready to fire. But it was a might inconvenient given the current company.

"Daryl. Put down the damn crossbow before she shoots ya."

* * *

><p><strong>Well...damn :D And they weren't even dressed for company. lol<strong>


	8. Chapter 8 - High noon

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. Hope everyone's OK with the way I'm handling Merle's (and now Daryl's) accent. I figure it'd get annoying if I do it all the way through so the occasional yer and ya is hopefully enough to get the message across. Merle's actually pretty well read so I definitely don't want to go down the road of overusing it to the point of making him sound ignorant. For anyone who didn't see me add the note to chapter one, the playlist for this story is on youtube. My user name is the same there and the playlist is called Servitude; two songs per chapter as stated on the chapters themselves.**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Skip James - Devil got my woman**

**Thin Lizzy - The boys are back in town**

**Chapter 08 - High noon**

"Put it fucking down NOW!" roared Merle at his little brother.

"Alright, alright. Jesus Christ, calm yer tits," said Daryl, lowering the crossbow and looking over his shoulder at his older brother.

"Ada?" Her gaze didn't move, nor did she lower her weapon. "Ada honey? You can put it down. He ain't gonna hurt me." Slowly she loosened the tension in her bow arm and pointed the arrow and bow at the ground.

"What the fuck are you two doing out here? That sheriff, Grimes, said he left you handcuffed on a roof in Atlanta. You find yourself a whore and decide to-" His words were cut short as a solid punch from Ada dropped him on his ass like a sack of potatoes. She looked at Merle and shrugged, then walked back into the house. _Hopefully to put some goddamn clothes on_. Daryl lay propped up on one hand, nursing his face with the other.

"Brother, I'm glad to see you. Kinda. But don't ever call her that again." Merle hauled Daryl to his feet by the back of his leather vest and patted him a little too hard on the face. It was affectionate, but his voice was serious. He didn't miss the odd look Daryl gave him, or the speculative glance he shot toward the door Ada had disappeared through.

"Headsup." Daryl lifted his chin and his crossbow at a spot behind Merle. When he turned there were a group of five walkers stumbling toward them. "Must have heard the shouting."

"We are drawing entirely too many visitors. Ada! We gotta go," he shouted into the open doorway as he moved to the first walker, machete in hand. Crossbow bolts took out two to the right as his blade slammed into the skull of the first one. Not to be outdone, he wrenched it out from under the stringy, brown hair and flung it horizontally, taking the top of the skull off another and lodging in the forehead of the last.

He wiped the machete on the grass as he looked back to the house to see Ada come striding out the door wearing brown leather pants and a laced up leather vest the same colour. _That white dress is something my little brother does not need to be seeing. Ever. Good choice, honey_. She didn't look at either of them, just carried on until she reached the edge of the river and gave a loud two finger whistle. They heard the trumpeting cry from the hill beyond and Daryl looked at Merle and whispered "What the fuck was that?"

"Thunderchild. And I suggest you be nice to his momma." Merle walked off leaving Daryl to look at him like he was crazy for a moment before catching up silently. "Hang onto your panties, Darleena; yer about to meet the devil himself."

The drum of hoofbeats got louder until they could all see the black juggernaut pounding down the hill. He didn't stop to go through the river, simply went over it, landing near Ada. He quickly backed her against a tree and positioned himself between her and the woods behind them. He snorted at Merle in recognition but his greeting to Daryl was decidedly unfriendly. He wasn't happy with the interloper and showed it in the way he alternated between stamping an angry pattern on the forest floor and snaking his head close to the ground, his teeth bared, as he approached.

"Don't worry, amigo. This here's my little brother." He wrapped his arm around Daryl's neck to rest it on his shoulder, ruffling his hair a little. That earned him a scowl. "Your momma's already put him in his place good and proper. Come say hi."

Thunderchild snuffled at both of them, paying particular attention to the arm Merle had slung around his brother's neck but nipping at Daryl briefly to make him stand still. Merle didn't get the pleasure of seeing Daryl knocked on his ass again, though, because the horse headbutted him before raising up one front leg and snorting in Daryl's ear.

_Traitor_.

"What in hell? Jesus, I didn't get a handshake." Merle muttered.

"Well I guess you weren't carrying carrots in your pocket for lunch, were you?" chuckled Daryl, bringing a couple from his pants' pocket and offering them to the horse. "Found some wild ones growing in the woods. Good with jerky. Or they would have been," he said regretfully, scratching Thunderchild's neck as he munched.

"Come on. We should go get some food." Ada said as she approached. "You two get on him first, I'll ride behind."

Merle boosted Daryl up onto the broad, black back, then allowed Ada to boost him to sit behind him. He reached down an arm to swing her up behind them both and she pressed a quick kiss to his ear before she shuffled her bare feet to stand on the horse's hips. She clicked her tongue and bent her knees, putting a steady hand on Merle's shoulder as they moved off toward the river.

Thunderchild picked his way carefully over the boulders that littered the bottom of the river, stopping once to take a long drink and snap at a fish that tickled his nose, before heaving them up the bank at the other side and making quickly for the camp. Merle felt Ada's knees bump his shoulders now and then as she flexed to keep her balance in tune with the horse's gait and put a hand back to touch her leg, more for his own peace of mind than for her balance as she seemed perfectly at ease.

"Welcome to the hill, little brother. Ada you want me to fetch some food while you see to the kids?" She nodded the affirmative and pulled open the trailer doors. He headed into the back while she led Boudicca down the ramp, Mammon following close behind. The little filly skittered around in circles, confused by the sudden daylight, before hurtling down the ramp, rolling twice, and bombing straight into Daryl. And that was how Merle happened to come back out of the trailer moments later with food and a large skillet in his hands to find Boudicca holding Daryl by the scruff of the neck and pawing the ground in annoyance.

_Now that is a sight I would have paid to see. And I get it all for free. Dumbass_.

"I didn't do nothin' I swear the foal ran straight into me and squealed when she fell over and her momma came and grabbed me by the neck and Jesus these things are fuckin' big can you make her let me go?" Daryl managed all in one breath. Merle threw his head back and laughed until his sides hurt.

"Oh. Daryl. Brother." His laughter faded to chuckles as he walked over to them. "You've gone and managed to make a good impression on all three females in one family and you've only been here half an hour." He patted Boudicca's side and shushed her until she was calm enough to let go. "Go see to your baby; I'll see to this one."

"Hey!" Daryl swatted his hand away, getting to his feet and brushing the dust off.

"Ah shut it. Do you want food or not? Come help with the fire." He hustled Daryl over to the almost dead campfire and started pushing kindling onto the dying embers.

"Is that a-" Daryl pointed to the overdone piece of beef still hanging on the stick from the previous night.

"Steak? Yup. I cooked it last night for Ada but she slept through. I was busy delivering Sola, that's the little filly, so I didn't eat it either."

"You mind if I-" His fingers were already grabbing for it.

"Go ahead. I got other stuff for all of us. Maybe that'll shut you up while I get it cooking." Merle chose some longer branches to cross into a square above the rising flames and balanced the skillet on top of them. He scattered a large handful of sausage links in it and bacon around the outsides. Six eggs were set aside to add once the meat was finished. Daryl was making random noises of sinful enjoyment as he stuffed the steak into his mouth.

"Sola huh?" he said around a mouthful of meat, juices running down his chin into his stubble. "Daughter of the Morning Star. Kinda fitting seeing as you said her daddy was the devil." Merle raised an eyebrow. "Don't look so surprised, you think I ain't read all those books you left behind when you went? Didn't have anything else to do between beatings." Merle went still.

"He beat you, too?" Daryl nodded, his gaze guarded. "Shit. I…I thought it was just me. I thought if I left his moods would too. He was always so good to you, and I was getting awful close to killing him the next time he laid a hand on me. Thought the two of you would be good for each other without me around."

"You weren't the problem, Merle. He was. There wasn't somethin' wrong with you that made him do what he did. After Ma died, he wasn't ever gonna be the same again. Didn't have to take it out on us the way he did, or any kinda way at all, but it weren't your fault. It was your fault that you fucking left me with him and never asked how I was doing, though." Merle growled.

"I told ya I didn't know. I'm sorry, OK? I really did think you'd have a better life without me."

"That wasn't ever gonna happen. We gotta stick together. So don't go hiding your head in that kind of bullshit reasoning again. We don't part ways again, hear?" _Hello, Darleena grew some balls_. _Well, alright then_.

"I _got_ it." Merle punched Daryl's shoulder as he heard Ada walk up behind them. She was carrying bread and a can of Coke.

"Only got four of these left, but figured we could share it," she said, offering Merle the can first. "Bread's frozen. Gotta break it into lumps so it'll be soft to eat."

"Frozen? You got a freezer in there, lady?"

"Her name's Ada." Merle levelled a glare at him and motioned between the two of them with one hand. "Daryl, Ada. Ada, Daryl."

"You got a freezer in there, _Ada_?" She just nodded, ignoring the tension between the two brothers, and settled down to sit between Merle's legs and lean back again him. Merle ran a hand down her arm and passed the can to Daryl. "What else do you have in there?"

"The bodies of my last victims," she said deadpan. She held his gaze for a second then let the corner of her mouth curl up in a smirk and held her fist out to him. His expression relaxed and he grunted, grudgingly bumping her fist with his as he chuckled.

"Well, alright then." He finally managed as he watched Merle crack the eggs into the skillet, the aroma from the sausage and bacon already making his stomach grumble. Ada had split the bread into chunks with a hunting knife and skewered them on the spiked branch that had held the steak. She held them close to the flames and sniffed deeply as the corners started to toast. She had to hand it to him hurriedly, though, as the little filly wobbled past them on unsteady legs, heading for the slope of the hill. Daryl whispered to Merle as they watched her run after the little horse.

"So what's the deal here with her?" Not missing the fact that his older brother flinched at the word 'deal'.

"Not much to tell. Officer Friendly cuffed me to the roof and left me there. She was hiding up there and let me out and brought us here. Ain't much else to tell." Daryl's disbelieving gaze told him what he thought of there not being much else to it.

"So she's what, just found herself a strong fella to protect and provide for her?"

"Think she's the one with more to provide. You should see her supplies. That plus the rig and the horses. No, she didn't need that. And even if she did, don't you think she'd have overlooked the sorry bastard cuffed to a pipe in favour of the guy who put him there?"

"Huh. Maybe. But what's with the two of you? Awful touchy-feely, and her lying on you like you're some kinda chair. I don't like it."

"You don't have to," growled Merle, grabbing the neck of Daryl's vest. "What's going on with her and me ain't none of your business or anyone else's. She's feeding you with her own supplies for Christ's sake. Act grateful. Don't have to like her but you do have to respect her, got that?" Daryl nodded sharply and went back to toasting the chunks of bread.

_Asshole. Getting a good meal and wants to bite the hand that's feedin' him_.

Merle pulled the skillet off the fire as Ada nudged Sola past them back toward the trailer. Boudicca came out to meet her and herded her back to where she felt was safe. Which, coincidentally, was the same place her food was. The three of them shuffled close around the skillet Merle had taken off the fire and Ada took the stick back from Daryl, pulling chunks off it.

"Oh Jesus," said Daryl as he scooped bacon and egg into his mouth. He followed it with a swig from the can of Coke which he swapped with Ada for a chunk of bread that she wiped in the skillet juices before putting it in his hand. He nodded in thanks and folded it roughly in half, pushing bits of sausage and bacon into it to made a crude sandwich.

"What the fuck has your brother been eating recently? He's going to be proposing to that sandwich any minute now." Ada smirked at Merle and he chuckled.

"Squirrel mostly," muttered Daryl, not taking his eyes, or mouth, from his breakfast. Ada made a face but shrugged. Merle thought she'd make do with whatever there was if needed, wasn't squeamish about having to do things the hard way when necessary. They both finished eating before Daryl, whom they let have the last bits of food. He was happy sitting there munching and wiping the skillet with another hunk of bread. Merle took Ada off to one side where they wouldn't be heard.

"I'm sorry for the interruption. I know this day was supposed to be special for you. But I get why he was worried, and glad that he found me here and didn't get all the way to the city looking for me. Who knows how that would've gone. I'll send him away as soon as he's finished eating." She shook her head no.

"Today already is special, Merle; I don't think it could get much more so. Plus I kinda like seeing you with your brother. Not everyone has someone who'd go off looking for them if they didn't come home. And I think," She stroked the side of his face and brought his hand up to bury her own cheek in his broad palm. "that after this morning, and the fact that I'm no longer travelling for a while, that we have more to talk about than just one day." The last part sounded like a question, meaning she was feeling a little unsure, too. He gulped at the possibilities going through his head but nodded.

_Don't leave without her…don't let her leave without you. Take her back. Keep her safe_.

"Do you…do you want to come back to the group with me? No-one'd make you share anything of your stuff that you didn't want as long as you pulled your weight. And if you didn't like it, this place'd still be here to come back to." He waited, seeing decisions flicker across her face.

"I think," she said thoughtfully, looking up at him. "I think I'd like to be wherever you are, at least for now. That OK?"

_Not with other people, not with our group, but with me. With me_.

"Yeah. Yeah, darlin', I reckon that's more than OK. But you tell me any time if it's not feeling right for you." He didn't think he meant just joining his group but was relieved when she nodded happily. He held her close, his arms tight around her, and kissed her long and hard, uncaring that his brother was staring at them with his mouth open, never having seen Merle remotely affectionate with a woman before. He broke the kiss and just stood looking at her for a moment. It was a tipping point, he knew that. He just hoped they were both choosing the right direction in which to fall.

"Come on, let's go tell Daryl."

Daryl was turning over two broken halves of a blade in his hands as they approached them. They settled back down on the log next to him.

"What happened to your lucky knife?" Merle let Daryl drop them into his hand and fingered the pieces, noting the percussive fractures along the edges of the metal.

"Broke it off in a walker's head across the river there. Big bastard. Thick skull. Managed to get the broken piece out, but it's useless now. I've had it so long, didn't ever think I'd be without it. I ever tell you it was the best present you ever gave me?" He looked up at Merle, his face unreadable.

"I can fix it. I think." Both their faces went blank for a second as what Ada had said registered.

"Fix it how?" the two brothers said in unison.

"I have a forge; it's how I make the horses' shoes. I worked as a blacksmith to pay my way through nine years of college. I'm not any kind of expert with high quality blades, but I can remake the two pieces into one." _Well, shit. She's got as many layers as an onion_.

"That…" Daryl swallowed a little of his orneriness. "That would be real good, thank you." Ada nodded.

"I'll need charcoal, though. A lot. It takes days to make it in a pit."

"We could do that for you at the camp." Merle nodded to Daryl. "Ada's coming back to the camp with us. See if she likes the fit of the group." Daryl just shrugged as if to say he knew that already. _Smartass_.

"They won't…they won't want to eat the horses will they?" Ada's voice was a little high pitched, uncertain if she was asking a stupid or a relevant question.

"Nah. That was the first thing that went through my head when I saw your boy there, though, that he'd feed everyone for a month and then some. But big as they are, they're more use alive, especially if they'll give us manure for growing vegetables and shit. Plus, Merle and I are probably the least civilised of the bunch. They won't take anything from you you don't wanna give. Just gotta work to earn your keep like everyone."

_I think that's the most I've heard Daryl speak in one sitting since he was little and was asking why everything_.

"OK then. I guess…we pack up and get over there. One of you want to take Thunder and make a couple trips to grabs the mattresses off the beds in that house while I pack up camp?"

"Sure I'll go if he'll be OK with me." Daryl raised his hand.

"You gave him food. I'm pretty sure he'll be fine with it." Ada laughed. "Take some of the longer ropes from the trailer to tie the mattresses to his back. Don't think you can do both but one at a time should be fine." Daryl nodded and went to get the ropes and then Thunderchild.

"Why'd you let him take your horse?" Merle was curious.

"To get them used to each other. Best way seeing as Daryl's not going to get as much of my scent on him as you do." She blushed.

"I should hope not," Merle growled.

They packed up camp efficiently. There wasn't much to do as it was mostly just extinguishing the fire and loading the horses and their trough onto the trailer. Sola led Merle a merry dance, though, and he was puffed out by the time he managed to get her back to the trailer. Daryl and Thunderchild reached them shortly afterwards with the first of the two mattresses and he just laughed at Merle before going back for the other.

_Asshat. Let's see you run around after this little madam for ten minutes and see how fresh you feel_.

By the time he came back with the second, soaked through from wading in the river ahead of the horse, Ada and Merle were ready to go. Ada threw some fresh trousers at Daryl.

"Hop in the back and see if those fit. Can't have you sitting in Doreen with a soggy ass." She smirked and climbed up into the cab of the truck.

'Doreen?' he mouthed silently at his brother and Merle made a sign for 'I'll explain later'. He went and changed into the dry clothes and left his wet pants on the floor of the trailer with the horses, setting up the drop down panel and locking the doors as he exited. He got in the passenger side of the cab, where Merle already sat in the seat closest to Ada.

"So where to?" Ada asked as she let the big rig gently down over the hump and onto the track that led down the hill. Daryl pointed left as they reached the bottom and she turned onto the highway and gunned the engine.

_T-Dog better be there. I have a little asskicking saved up for him from before. And anyone else who don't make Ada feel welcome_.

When they reached the bottom of the track that led to the hill region Merle and Daryl's group had been living in, Ada pulled the rig to one side and parked up.

"You ain't gonna drive up there?" Merle put a hand over hers.

"No. They know you two; you're part of the group. I'm not. And I've had enough unfriendly welcomes to know not to make an escape route any harder than it needs to be." Daryl nodded. He knew that feeling. And had been the one giving the unfriendly welcome more often than not. "Daryl, can you go ahead and let them know we're coming. And Merle and I can ride up after you, give the camp time to filter the information through?" He nodded and set off at a jog up the hill.

"Every meeting I've had with any group so far has gone badly." Ada heaved a huge sigh, trying to steady her nerves.

"Must be your charming personality. If I recall, you called me a dickless wonder when you met me." _Not that you weren't right to at the time_.

"Yeah, well, you kinda asked for it," she chuckled. "Come on, I need to get Thunder ready."

She took him around to the back of the trailer and unloaded the big black horse, who stood there looking as if he knew they had arrived somewhere with a sense of purpose. Ada came puffing out the back of the trailer with some large pieces of metal, which she dumped on the ground, and a big coloured blanket, which she flung across the broadly muscled back. Taking some thin leather ties she braided two front lengths of her hair and fastened them, then put on leather cuffs that gripped her upper arms, accentuating the flat, wiry muscles of hard use.

_Must be the strongest woman I've ever seen. Looks good on her, though. Looks damn good_.

"Help me get these on him." 'These' turned out to be a metal breastplate that covered the horse's chest and shoulders, and a faceplate with a wicked looking curved horn on the forehead, sharpened to a blade on the upper edge. _I think she was being modest about her smithing skills_. She disappeared into the trailer and came back with a huge broadsword.

"You look like you're getting ready for war," he smirked, dipping his head for a sweet kiss. _Might be a while before I get to do that again. Group's gonna be in a uproar I reckon_.

"Maybe I am." Her eyes flashed. "I aim to make an impression."

"You'll succeed," he said flatly.

Ada stuck the sword through a strap behind the blanket and closed up the trailer, making sure everything would be secure while she was away. She boosted Merle up onto Thunderchild's back and let him swing her up in front of him. She pushed her bow and arrows to one side and leaned back into his embrace as he wrapped his arms around her. He felt her take a deep breath and nuzzled his face in her neck, not wanting the moment to end.

"They'll like you just fine. Let's go meet them." Ada nodded and clicked her tongue, and the enormous muscles bunched beneath them as they set off at a fast pace up the track.

It didn't take long, but Daryl must have made good time; he and Officer Friendly and almost all of the others were waiting for them at the top of the track. Merle smirked. He knew what they must look like. Ada with her long hair billowing out and a bow slung across her, all dressed in leather. Him with machetes crossed over his back and his arm around the avenging angel in front of him. Thunderchild looking like a black devil in his breast and face plates, wicked blade pointing to the heavens as his huge body pushed them all forward.

_Might be a few changes of drawers needed after this. Heh_.

As amusing as he found it, he knew Ada was in the zone and ready to fight if necessary. She had good reason. The group in front of them looked dumbstruck, and slightly terrified. But that didn't stop them pointing at least half a dozen weapons at them. Daryl looked like he wanted to facepalm and was nonchalantly scratching behind his ear with the loaded crossbow. Thunderchild slowed and stopped in front of the sheriff and Ada spoke first.

"Hey Daryl." Her tone was conversational.

"Ada." Daryl tipped her a salute with the bolt of his crossbow and whispered in the sheriff's ear. The sheriff motioned the others to lower their weapons and holstered his own. He looked past her at her passenger.

"Dixon."

"Officer Friendly." Merle smiled nastily and helped Ada dismount, swinging to the ground himself a second later. She walked forward and stood in front of the lawman.

"You're Grimes?"

"I am." She hauled back and punched him as hard as she could. The crack echoed around the clearing and the officer went down. Daryl's face was a picture, grudging respect altering to something akin to pride and gratitude as he eyed Ada warily before looking to Merle. Merle just nodded slowly, answering the unspoken question. _Damn straight she's got balls_.

"That's for cuffing him to a roof." The sheriff stood again shakily with Daryl's help. She shifted on her feet and the officer all but flinched.

Merle watched his brother's face go from proud to amused - _ain't gonna ever be dull with her around_ - and grinned to himself before turning to Dale.

"Well, Ada seems to be making such a good job of the introductions, how's about someone shows me somewhere I can water this horse?" He nudged Thunderchild to follow him and stalked past the stunned group, saving a particularly vicious smile for T-Dog. _I'll catch up with him later. Fun stuff first_. He looked back to where Ada was cautiously meeting the rest of the group. Lori and Shane in particular seemed to get a frostier greeting than most.

_And there's gonna be a whole lot of it_.

* * *

><p><strong>Whew. Longest chapter yet. Fun though ;)<strong>


	9. Chapter 9 - Courage

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. I'm kind of at a crossroads now. I'm having to start using a narrative POV as well as just Merle's, as he can't be everywhere at once to see everything going on and there's just too much that would only be able to be told as Merle hearing about it secondhand. And I think that would get old really fast. I don't have any particular inclination to do anything specifically from Ada's POV, but the narrative POV will cover her and everyone else involved in the story. If it doesn't work well, worst case scenario I'll have to rewrite a few chapters. I'll make it clear what POV is being used at all times. NB. My timeline is going to differ in plenty of places; they will meet some of the same people and never meet others; they'll find places at different times, avoid others altogether; some of the same people will live/die, others won't.**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**3 Doors Down - Kryptonite **

**Gillian Welch - Time (The revelator)**

**Chapter 09 - Courage**

**Merle POV**

Uncomfortable would be how he'd describe sitting with Shane and Lori and Grimes. He'd brought Ada to their group, was responsible for getting her settled in, but right now, the way they were looking at him, he wanted to run far away and bury himself in a bottle. _Or her. _They seemed to think that what he'd come to them with was a request.

_Since when does Grimes have a say in the decisions around here? And how long before someone tells him his wife's been sleeping with the creep?_

"I ain't asking, I'm telling. Ada's with me and Daryl for now. If y'all don't want us with the group say now. If you do, say that now, too. But for fuck's sake hurry up; she's got three horses in her rig at the bottom of the hills here and they need seeing to more than your egos need fellatiating." He noted that their collective ears perked up at the mention of the rig, or the horses; he couldn't tell which. Maybe both.

_I knew she'd be more valuable to them than me. Doesn't mean it don't sting, though_.

"I'm not comfortable having someone who punched my husband staying at our camp. I think she needs to apologise for losing her temper like that before we go any further," began Lori.

"Bullshit. I've seen her lose her temper. She was in complete control when she floored the good sheriff here." The good sheriff in question gestured for her to leave it, which annoyed her. _Good_. "Your husband and Ada are cool. He did something she didn't like, and she made it pretty clear how much she didn't like it. It's over and done with."

He tipped his chin at the lawman and he returned the sentiment with the most minute nod. There might not be respect there yet for Merle, or ever, but he at least appreciated where Ada was coming from, even if they'd been on opposite ends of his decision to leave Merle on the roof.

He turned his eyes back to Grimes. _Funny how everyone keeps doing that, even our supposed leader, Shane…who is going to provoke my attentions if he keeps looking at Ada like he did when she arrived_.

"She don't much care whether she's with this group or not, can't say I do either. But that don't mean we won't pull our weight. So you either want the three of _us_ here or you don't."

"Supposing we did gloss over your outburst on the roof, we already know what your skills are. What does she bring to the group?" Shane's voice was oily and, for someone sitting behind the wife of the man who'd been asking the questions so far, he was trying awful hard to make himself look like the big dog.

"The willingness to work as hard as anyone here. Other than that, I don't care to list her assets in order to impress you. Now, what do you have to offer her? This audition goes both ways." They looked surprised. _Hadn't thought of that had you?_

"Well, the security of a large group-"

"Large groups bring more walkers. Next point."

"The amenities we've managed to procure and maintain should make anyone very comfortable-"

"The truck has better." Checkmate. "You have a lot less to offer than she does. She is not as safe with you as she is with me and Daryl or by herself. She'll work as hard as anyone, harder, and you know I ain't lazy, but neither of us are jumping through hoops in the here and now."

"I…see. She'll be expected to do chores. Amy can show you where the women do the laundry-" Lori was silenced again.

"She's a blacksmith with a PhD in some kinda engineering and can fight with every kind of weapon I've seen in her hands so far. She won't be doing laundry except her own." He nodded once at them and stood. The subject was closed as far as he was concerned.

"Nice chatting with you, Officer Friendly, Mrs Friendly, Creep. We're gonna go fetch her rig." As he went to find Ada he could hear them speculating in low voices about what was going on between him and Ada. _Well I don't think we have an idea between us on that matter so good luck with that_.

He found her with Thunderchild and stood next to her for a moment before speaking.

"I don't want to add to your doubts about joining a group, but be wary of Shane. I don't like the way he was looking at you."

"Me either. He dangerous?" She squinted up at him, the sun in her eyes.

"Maybe. Maybe not. He's been fucking Officer Friendly's wife for the last month." He rubbed his hand over the bristles on his chin thoughtfully. "He's a little intense. They're best friends by all accounts, but if he were to decide he didn't want to give up the sheriff's missus, well you couldn't colour me surprised."

"Shit. I've landed in the middle of a soap opera," groaned Ada as Merle boosted her onto the horse's back. He caught her offered arm and used the counterweight to jump up behind her. It was a little clumsier than when he swung her up, but he didn't fall off. "The end of the world doesn't need drama thrown into the mix."

_And what exactly is it that we're doing?_

"You ain't wrong." He let his hands lay idly on her hips as they jogged along in the sun.

It didn't take long to reach the truck and Ada loaded Thunderchild into the trailer with his family, whom he greeted noisily. Once they sat in the cab, Merle stopped Ada starting the engine, a hand over hers. She looked at him in question.

"Things might be different now. Like you said, the end of the world doesn't need drama thrown into the mix. You're going to see the sides of me now that the others already know and love." He looked out through the windshield. "I ain't saying I haven't changed some, I have, but not so much that you ain't gonna be treated to a crash course in Merle 101." Ada looked at him blankly for a second before a corner of her lips quirked up.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to run screaming for the hills? Headsup, soldier; we're already in the hills and I'm driving not running." _God fucking damnit, woman, I'm trying to give you an out here_.

"This ain't a joke," he snapped, slamming his hand on the steering wheel, which made her jump. "I don't know why I am the way I am, but it ain't gonna all get washed clean over night. I've spent too many years waking up in the middle of the night not even knowing what I am, what I'm good for, to be able to get a handle on how to be what you…we need."

"I'm sorry." She touched his arm and he flinched but didn't move it away. "Merle, I am. I know I make a joke too easily but I don't take what you say lightly." He nodded tightly and spoke in a resigned voice.

"I don't know how we go about building…something in a world like this. Hell I don't know anything about how to do that with someone, period. But there's one guarantee I can make you and that's that I'm gonna fuck up plenty and that I'm gonna to be an asshole to you on more than one occasion. And I ain't looking forward to it, but that don't mean I ain't gonna go right ahead and do it anyway."

"I _know_ that already. And I can't say that I'm going to do any better. But if you have something to say to me say it, even if it's a string of curses, just let it be the truth. You be you and I'll be me and we'll see if there's a middle to meet in." She stood and tugged on his arm, leading him back into the sleeping area of the cabin and started unlacing her leather vest.

"This ain't the time for-"

"I disagree." She looked at him sharply. "If we can't fight and fuck and still find the energy to do what needs to be done then it's not ever going to be real." She unlaced the leather pants and slid them down over her hips. He found his hands reaching for his own pants before he knew he was moving.

_Why do you always have to know how to harness this beast inside me? One day it'll get free and it'll be stronger than both of us, and then what will we do?_

"Merle, I have no expectations except this." She grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the wall at shoulder level, bringing her knee up to rub against his angry erection.

"What're you doing?" he growled.

"I'm being a possessive bitch is what I'm doing." She lifted his wrists away from the wall and slammed them back again for emphasis. He let her. "If you're going to be an asshole to me then go ahead and be one. But get one thing through your head right now."

She was right in his face and he could feel her hard nipples pressing against his chest with every laboured breath she took. His eyes drifted downward to appreciate the sight of her fine breasts pressed against his body.

"I _do not_ share. So I'd better damn well be the only woman you're being an asshole to, you get me, you ornery ass redneck?" His eyes snapped to hers. _Oh, so that's how we're playing it is it? Well, alright then_.

He shook her hands off his wrists easily and slammed her naked body down onto the bed with a hand around her throat. With the other hand he parted her thighs roughly and swung her body around to suit the angle he wanted, burying his face in her dripping sex. _Goddamn but I love that getting pissed at me turns her on_.

"What…Merle…what're you-"

"This ignorant," _lick_ "stubborn," _nip_ "ornery ass redneck is gonna get your scent all over him so every woman for a hundred miles knows who he belongs to." He didn't look up at her, but the stillness in her let him know she hadn't missed the significance of what he'd just said. She shuddered as he thrust his tongue roughly inside her, rubbing his bristled cheeks and chin against her sensitive skin.

"You know," she gasped as she tried to keep her breathing steady enough to speak, but he didn't take the hand off her throat. "For an ignorant redneck you sure spend a lot of the time knowing exactly the right thing to say."

"I can articulate as well as the next person. Better. Most just aren't worth the effort."

"But I am?" Her feet scuffled on his back as she tried to press him closer.

"Oh, darlin', you have no idea. Now quit moving."

"Fuck you." _You said it, woman, not me_.

"You first." He replaced his tongue with the head of his cock and slammed the whole length into her. She screamed his name and her whole body jerked, her legs spasming either side of him. _Holy hell_. "Did you…did you just-" She nodded and turned her head to the wall, her face going bright red.

"Are you embarrassed?" He turned her head back to lean his forehead against hers and felt her tiny nod and the heat from her cheeks. "Oh, honey, don't be. Do you know how sexy that is?" She shook her head. "Very." He thrust into her hard. "Very, very…sexy." A few more hard thrusts and he flooded her still clenching walls. Their union had been brief but heartfelt and they both lay close afterwards, just touching.

Half an hour later, they redressed slowly, eyes constantly meeting for long periods. Merle had finally gotten his wish. He had gotten to see her laid out naked with all that pretty hair spread out around her. _Felt like I was fucking an angel_. It was all he could do to let her sit back in the driver's seat instead of bending her over it.

When they pulled up into camp there was a ring of stunned faces around them. Only Creep and the two Grimes had known about Ada's rig and, judging by the expressions around them, they hadn't mentioned it. When they got back to the camp Ada pulled the rig over to a large, clear space away from the tents and Winnebago so the horses would have plenty of room.

"Just so there's no misunderstandings, I don't intend to share much with these people until I get to know them better. For now, the supplies in the rig are yours and Daryl's as well as mine; neither of you have to ask me for anything. If there's something small that can help someone, give it. But don't let anyone know the extent of the food supplies for the time being," said Ada.

"Fair enough. Same goes for me. What's mine is yours. Daryl…I guess we'll have to see. He ain't taken much of a shine to you yet and he's no hypocrite." She nodded in understanding.

"I'm going to take Mammon down to the shore and haul some water for the horses. Then maybe see if I can find some wood for fencing and making charcoal. I need to build a pen for Bou and Sola tomorrow and I need to get my forge going so I can start making more weapons." She stopped speaking and looked down. He followed her gaze.

His hands had started to shake again. He was about to clench them into fists when Ada's smaller hands wrapped around them and held them tightly. He opened and closed his mouth.

"I…shit…you already know," he said in defeat. "Been trying to figure out how to tell you and you already know."

"You'll talk about it if you need to." She kissed his cheek and jumped out the cab. "Don't beat yourself up so much. That's my job." With a wink she was gone.

Merle looked skyward. _You know, when I asked you to give me a break, I meant get me out of the cuffs. I think you overdid it just a might_.

He took a machete and headed for the woods.

**Narrative POV**

Ada grabbed buckets from the trailer and gave one to Mammon, ignoring the odd looks of some of the camp members.

"Stay here," she admonished, walking over to where Lori and Carol were watching their kids play together while they scaled fish that looked freshly caught.

"Hi."

"Ada." Lori nodded. "Carol, this is Ada. She arrived with Merle and Daryl earlier." The shy, grey haired woman smiled and extended a hand.

"Andrea and Amy caught these this morning. There's enough for everyone and then some. Will you join us for dinner later?"

"We will. Thanks. I have a six pack of beers everyone can share. And milk or a can of Coke between the kids." She looked at Lori as she said it. She wasn't sorry for hitting the woman's husband and wouldn't apologise for it but wanted to make it clear that she'd contribute as part of the group from the start.

"Everyone will like that. Although, milk for the kids if you don't mind." Lori looked at Carol and she nodded.

"Sure," said Ada. "Uh…do you mind your kids coming and meeting the horses? They'll get to know everyone anyway, but with the mare having a yearling and a foal not even one day old yet, she needs to know to be gentle with the kids even if they spook her by accident or get too close to her baby."

"Less than a day old? It was born last night?" asked Carol.

"Yeah, Merle delivered her. So I had a surprise when I woke up in the morning." She chuckled.

"Merle delivered it?" The two women gawped.

"Yup. Did a real good job, too. Fucked up my plans to move on, but then so did meeting Merle." She blushed a little and the other women exchanged a speculative glance. Carol went to fetch Sophia and Carl and Ada turned to Lori.

"Lori, I don't know who's in charge here or how things work with the group, what your goals are, but I need to talk to you guys about some of the other groups I've met."

"We generally discuss as a whole group. Shane was unofficially our leader but now Rick's here, I just don't know." Lori looked perturbed by the fact.

"So maybe I can talk to the three of you and you decide between you if you want to take it to the group?" Lori nodded as Carol came back with the children.

"Ada this is Carl, mine and Rick's son, and Carol and Ed's daughter, Sophia."

"Nice to meet you. Carl, Sophia. Your moms said it's OK for you to come meet my horses. They're big and you need to be safe around them, OK?" The kids nodded. Carl looked interested, but Sophia was a withdrawn, serious little thing. They both followed her to the truck, Lori and Carol trailing along behind. They looked a little awed when they saw the size of the animals.

"They're so big. I never saw anything like them. Can I touch them?" said Carl. Ada nodded and he went straight to Mammon, drawn by his bizarre colouring.

"He has different colour eyes," remarked Sophia, watching Carl pet the colt.

"Something happened when Boudicca was pregnant with him. I think he should have been two foals, one of each colour. But something got mixed up and he came out just him with both colours." Ada urged Sophia to touch him. She sighed as she realised how soft his mouth was and giggled when he blew a raspberry into her hand.

"Can you ride him?" asked Carl. Ada shook her head.

"He's too young still, just under a year. I'll give it another nine months and then train him to take a rider." He nodded.

"You ride the adult ones?" asked Carol in surprise. "They're so big. I thought they would just be for working."

"They're both. They like to feel useful. Come meet Mammon's momma, Bou." She beckoned the two children and their moms toward Boudicca where she stood with the little filly asleep at her feet. "Let her smell all of you, keep your arms round your kids." Thunderchild wandered over, interested in the goings on, and both kids and moms stood there stiffly while the two huge adult horses snuffled them repeatedly.

"What're they doing?" Lori asked in a whisper.

"They're figuring the four of you out. Sophia and Carl smell like half of you to them. They work on family connections. OK step back again, you two." The two women stepped back as asked and Ada stepped forward and gave the kids a brief one armed hug each. "Babies," she said in a stern voice to both horses. "Babies. OK guys?"

"We're _not_ babies," Carl protested, pulling away from Ada's arm.

"I know that, buddy. Think of it like a codeword. I need them to know you guys are important, OK? But it also means they'll be more patient than they would be with the grownups in the camp if you annoy them by accident." He and Sophia nodded.

"You're OK to be around them now. Just don't be too loud if you touch Boudicca's baby." Both of them nodded, half scared of the enormous beasts, half excited that she hadn't said they couldn't play with the foal.

"This part is the most important of all, so don't forget it." She bent down a little, looking serious and they shook their heads, wide-eyed. "If there's trouble, or you don't feel safe and there's no grownups around, you get to the horses as fast as you can. They'll look after you. Got it?" Both heads nodded furiously. "OK. Go meet Boudicca's baby. It's a little girl; her name is Sola."

She stood and walked over to the two women while Carl and Sophia carefully tiptoed over to the little filly. They sat down next to her and just watched her sleeping while the women talked behind them.

"Thanks. Will the horses really look after them?" asked Lori.

"Yeah. They don't understand the walkers but they like them about as much as we do and won't let them close enough to touch." Lori nodded thoughtfully and wandered back over to the food preparation area to continue cleaning the fish. Carol looked over at Sophia.

"Sophia, can you go check on your daddy and see if he's awake yet?" she asked softly. Sophia looked at Carol, looked at Ada, then back to Carol and shook her head timidly.

"Why not? You can see the horses again afterwards." Sophia crossed and uncrossed her arms, eventually wrapping them around her sides.

"She said to be with the horses if I didn't feel safe." She glanced at Ada again before fixing her eyes firmly in her lap and saying in a small voice. "I don't feel safe with Daddy."

Carol was stunned, and a humiliated flush crept slowly up her cheeks, not just because a stranger had heard what her daughter said about their family's business, but because she had let Ed's bullying go on so long that it was now frightening her daughter. She cleared her throat wetly and steeled herself.

"That's OK, baby. You stay here. You won't have to feel scared of your daddy again." She felt a hand on her arm and took a deep breath before walking off toward hers and Ed's tent, where he had been lying asleep when she left it earlier.

He was still sleeping, the livid bruises and abrasions from Shane's beating looked angry and painful. She felt strangely satisfied by that fact. She thought about the way her daughter had hugged herself when she spoke. She couldn't see her like that again. Sophia mustn't grow up being afraid of the man that raised her. If she did, it might become so normal to her that she'd end up marrying a man just like him.

She reached out a hand without thinking and picked up a pillow. She could do it. She could do it quickly, and quietly, but not without everyone knowing what she had done, not without Sophia knowing. What would be worse? For Sophia to hate her for it or thank her for it? She swiped frustrated tears from her cheeks with one hand while the other plucked and plumped at the pillow in her lap.

Ed stirred and she held her breath, holding the pillow tightly with both hands. She gave a little jerk as she realised she was inching it closer to his sleeping face. Only it wasn't a sleeping face any more.

"What're you doing?" One eye was opened just a sliver. Cold shot through her and her old friend fear came tripping along in her brain again like so many times before.

"I thought you might be more comfortable with an extra pillow. Would you like one?" She held the cushion in front of her almost like a shield, expecting a blow at any moment. But to her relief he just nodded and closed his eye again. She pushed it under his head and patted it before leaving the tent quickly.

Carol stood just outside the tent flap, looking at the cliffs on the other side of the water. Her arms swung forward and back, one hand smacking lightly into the palm of the other over and over.

"Coward. I'm a coward. Goddamnit. If I can't stand up for my daughter, how can I ever hope to stand up for myself?" The cliffs gave her no answer other than the faraway splashes of loose scree falling into the lake.

She hadn't known where she would go when she got back to camp but found herself back in front of the woman who owned the horses. She knew she was crying and looked shaken and she didn't care, even as the woman looked at her questioningly.

"I need," she said with tightly controlled breaths "to _hit_ something."

Ada led her silently into the trailer of her truck and pulled back a large tarpaulin, underneath which was an anvil and a strange contraption with a gas canister attached. She motioned for Carol to take the other side and they dragged it out onto level ground, followed by the anvil. Ada lit a nozzle on the first contraption and a flame shot out. She adjusted a cuff and it turned blue and then invisible.

"Here." She passed Carol a large, weighty hammer and she hefted it in her hands while Ada used a pair of huge tongs to pass a flat ingot of dark metal through the colourless flame until it started glowing red and then white hot. Ada turned off the flame and then handed the tongs to Carol, showing her to place the ingot on the anvil.

Carol brought the hammer down with a crack, missing the ingot entirely, the hammer glancing off the side of the anvil. She tried again and felt the difference as the hammer landed flat against the ingot. The power of the blow travelled back up her arm painfully and she had to concentrate to stop herself dropping the hammer.

She brought the hammer down again. And again. And again and again and again. Until her arm was aching and her breath was coming in crying gasps. Ada and Mammon hauled buckets of water, watching Carol becoming increasingly exhausted each time they returned to the trailer.

A few members of the camp had paused as they walked past to see Carol smashing the crap out of an anvil with a hammer, one of them being Daryl. He levelled a look at Ada, half accusing her of interfering, half praising her for doing what none of them had. She raised her chin in challenge and he backed down, his hands raised in surrender.

Merle stopped next to him for a moment as he walked past. Casting a glance between Carol and Ada he caught Ada's eyes in silent support before continuing on past the spectacle.

Ed chose that moment to wander slowly into camp, thinking to tell Carol to go fetch him something to eat. The camp held a collective breath as Carol looked up and noticed him, never stopping the swing of her arm. Ed looked between the expression on her face and the hammer in her hand and, for once, did the wise thing and walked back to the tent.

Carol's arm finally gave out and the hammer clattered off the anvil to the ground. She left it there, sitting back on her haunches. The iron ingot she had been hitting was now a twisted, unrecognisable piece of scrap. She looked up at Ada with a wobbly grin.

"Feel better?" Ada asked.

"I feel…like me. I haven't felt like me since before we were married," Carol answered, crossing her arms over her knees and resting her forehead on them wearily.


	10. Chapter 10 - Breach

**APOLOGIES FOR REPOST OF THE SAME CHAPTER: WASN'T SHOWING THE STORY AS HAVING UPDATED SO I DIDN'T KNOW IF ANYONE GOT NOTIFICATION OR NOT.**

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. Too tired to write anything. Enjoy the chapter!**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Gillian Welch - Tear my stillhouse down**

**The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow**

**Chapter 10 - Breach**

**Merle POV**

Merle heard his brother's footsteps as he caught up with and fell in step with him. _Took your time there, Darleena_.

"Where're you going?" Daryl asked, resting his crossbow on one shoulder.

"To get more wood. Ada needs to fence the horses in and we need a ton of wood for charcoal or her forge."

"Not gonna take that much to fix my knife is it?"

"She says she's going to start producing weapons. I'm assuming we're going to be quite busy making charcoal for her. And maybe gathering scrap metal."

"I hope I get to see Lori's face when she starts making the weapons. Might upset her little peace love dope hippy commune she's got herself convinced this all is."

"Mrs Friendly don't smoke pot." _That'd be a sight, though. Might get her head from out her ass. Maybe I should donate the last of my stash. Research purposes_…

"You know what I mean. Half these people act like they're on vacation. We've barely met any other groups. We have no idea if there's friendlies or what out there."

"From what Ada's told me, I'd say 'or what'." He remembered how small she'd felt in his arms when she told him about the man who'd hurt her. _That reminds me, I have someone to kill_.

They started chopping branches, separating them into piles of ones that were big enough to make fence posts and random ones that would work for charcoal.

"She run into some then?"

"A lot, I think. At least half a dozen. She was freaked out over coming here because every other group she's met has attacked or tried to attack her. I don't think we have the full picture here, brother."

"We can ask her about them, though, can't we?"

"I know she's already asked to meet with Creep and Grimes. Probably Lori, too. We could sit in on that. They can't very well argue against the two best fighters meeting to discuss relevant information." Merle rubbed his chin with one hand. "You still don't like her much, do you?"

"Don't exactly dislike her. Something about her gets under my skin. And it's downright fuckin' weird seeing and hearing you talk like you give a shit about…anything."

"I ain't gonna run off with her and leave you if that's what you're worried about." _Shit. That came out wrong. Already ran out on him once. Ain't gonna do it again. But I figure he don't really believe that_.

"It ain't. Not much. She made…makes a big difference to you. I just need time to make up my mind whether that's deliberate or not."

"It ain't like that." _Sonofawhore. I will beat him like a runaway slave if he even tries saying she's a gold-digger_.

"Then what is it? Fucking tell me, Merle. Only two days ago you were the same shithead brother I've always known. Now you're…you're being _nice_ to people fer Christ's sakes."

"Tell me about it. Saw Dale over by the trailer just now and I _smiled_ at the sonofabitch before I could help myself." He looked mildly horrified and changed the subject quickly. "Ada says all her supplies are ours now."

"Yours and hers 'ours' or the three of us 'ours'?" Daryl squinted at him suspiciously.

"The three of us. She said don't bother asking for anything, just take what we want but don't dish anything out to the rest of the group." Merle flinched and stopped to pull a huge splinter from the webbing between two fingers.

"Why's she willing to share with one stranger but not the rest?" The tone of his brother's voice made it sound like he'd lit upon a sought after character flaw.

"Well, for one I think she considers you more extended family than a stranger as you're my blood. For two, she hasn't specifically said, but I reckon she's got it in her head that the rest of the group don't _get shit_ until they stop treating me _like it_." He had a little smug smile.

"All they gotta do is pretend to play nice and they'll get a cut?" _Don't take that tone with me, amigo_.

"Nah, she's smarter than that. She ain't gonna tell them what she's got or what they gotta do to get some. She's just gonna sit and watch. If they take their heads outta their asses of their own accord, then I reckon she'll contribute more of what she has."

"Oh." Daryl thought about this for a moment. "That is smart. And loyal." He absentmindedly scratched his nuts. "I ain't gonna take anything from her for now."

"I know." Merle heaved the bundled wood onto his shoulders. "Already told her that."

"But I'll trade, what she's got for fair shares of what I bring to the table. Until I get her figured out in my head." Merle just nodded and helped tie the other bundle across his brother's shoulders.

"I like what she did for Carol. Helped her take what she needed, no questions asked." They trudged back to camp, bugs tickling their shoulders as they fell out of the leaves on the branches and dropped down their shirts.

"Yeah."

"But of course now I feel like a dick for not trying to help her sooner." _Always a soft spot for the underdog, little brother. I keep telling you it'll get you killed_.

"Weren't anyone else's business until she asked for it to be." _She didn't want anyone to know her shame any more than we did when we were our daddy's punching bags_.

"Bullshit. I'm expected to protect her from walkers, even from people if needed, like any other member of the group. But not from this one particular person? I call bullshit on that one and you should, too."

"Maybe. Maybe not. But even a beat down woman has her pride. I don't mean it like she didn't deserve help. I mean it like she deserved the respect of us turning a blind eye as long as that's what she truly wanted." This seemed to give Daryl food for thought as he started nodding slowly along to Merle's words halfway through. "But it's out in the open now. Just gotta see what happens next. And back up either of them if they end up in the thick of it."

Ada might have put herself in the line of fire by helping Carol. Ed wasn't stupid. Scratch that. Ed was very stupid. But even he could see the obvious when it took the shape of a hammer beating a rhythm on his metaphorical nuts.

"You stink of her, you know that, right?" Daryl made a face.

"It's intentional. No other woman's gonna make the mistake of thinking they got a chance."

"And they don't?" asked Daryl, incredulously.

"No. They don't." Merle stood still, drinking that in. "Made damn sure she knew that, too. Not that they've ever been knocking down my door. But she seems to put value on the notion. Jealous."

"You make her tell you the same thing?" Daryl only knew two sides of Merle with women, utterly callous or a jealous, insecure prick.

"Don't need to. She tells me every time she looks at me. I might not have a single goddamn idea what I'm doing, but I ain't blind. I don't have to worry about any other men with her. In fact, I'd for sure like to see some poor bastard try." _Maybe the Chinese kid. She'd fuckin' eat him whole and spit out bones. And he'd love every second. Heh_.

"So. That's it then. She's…yours."

_Do I need her to say it? No. Do I want her to say it? …fuck_.

"I ain't sure."

Daryl's mind created for him a very clear image of the look on Ada's face when she laid the sheriff out on the ground with one punch.

"I think she's sure." Merle just nodded thoughtfully.

"Did you run outta chemicals? Your hands have been shaking the whole time we've been out here."

"Haven't had any for three days. Feeling it some, that's all." Daryl didn't miss the fact that Merle wouldn't look at him when he answered. _Leave it alone, little brother. I do not want to get into this right now_.

"Why didn't you get some more?"

"Just didn't." _Fuck's sake will you just leave it?_

"Come on, man. You ain't been clean since you were seventeen years old. All of a sudden you've got a lid on it? For Christ's sakes why?"

"Because she makes me want to be a better man!" Merle snarled in his stunned face before stalking off at double the pace.

Daryl stood in the forest, watching his brother's disappearing back.

**Narrative POV**

Carol and Ada were sharing an ice cold can of Coke, hidden from passersby behind their backs as they passed it to and fro between them.

"I feel guilty," said Carol, taking a long swallow before hiding the can again.

"Because Sophia said it in front of me?" Carol shook her head emphatically.

"Because I was embarrassed about that _first_. Because I was embarrassed about it _before_ I was embarrassed about the fact that I'd let it go on so long that it effected her like that. It was only a moment, but her fear should have been my only shame, not a close second." She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes so hard that she saw stars.

"Yet you didn't spare me so much as a glance; you hightailed it out of here to your tent to deal with your husband."

"And chickened out." If Carol's fingernails pressed any deeper into her palms she'd start to draw blood.

"Don't talk about it like that. What you tried to…what I _think_ you tried to do, is not something to be taken lightly. Don't feel ashamed for not having it in you to do something of such…enormity."

Carol regarded her with sombre eyes.

"I didn't think about where I was going when I came back. But I ended up here. I think…I think deep down I knew you were the only other person here who would understand, you know?" Carol gave Ada a knowing look that was full of a kind of sympathy Ada couldn't fathom she'd done anything to earn.

"No, no I don't know what you mean." She shook her head, puzzled.

"I mean," Carol caught Ada's arm with one hand, thumbing bruises in the shape of fingerprints, and brushed her hair away from the dark bite mark on her shoulder, which was purpling and punctuated with blood blisters. She pulled the hair forward again quickly, but Carol mistook the gesture as shame.

"It's OK, it's just…it's still new for you. You still have time to get away from him and-"

"No. Carol, no. Merle would _never_ hurt me." She didn't know whether to be horrified that Carol would think him capable of such a thing or overwhelmed with sadness that she'd thought she had company in her misery but had been alone in it all along.

"But I thought…why do you have those?" The first flushes of humiliation crept up Carol's neck, which she tried to hide with fluttering hands.

"We're…learning each other. It's intense." Ada spoke softly but Carol heard a great deal more behind her words.

"I'm sorry I assumed. I feel so stupid." She thunked her forehead down on her knees and bumped it a couple times. "Stupid. Stupid."

"Hey! It wasn't stupid and you're not for thinking it, or for having some kind of need to not be the only one going through what you're going through."

"My head is telling me the same thing. It's just-"

"And your heart?"

"My heart and I haven't spoken in a very long time. We probably don't even speak the same language any more."

"Sure you do. You both speak Sophia don't you?" Ada bumped Carol's shoulder gently with her own.

"I am going to stand up to him. I will. I just need to collect my thoughts and-"

"Holy shit. Is that a can of…you guys have Coke?" A shadow fell across the two women and they looked up. Glenn was staring at the can that sat between them with a mixture of lust and disbelief.

"Sssssshhh. Don't broadcast it to the whole group. And Glenn! Girl time here!" Carol hissed at him.

"Oh. Oh yeah. Sorry! But seriously, please, can I just have a sip, I promise I won't tell anyone just please, they took apart the cool car I found and I've been so bummed about it and it's been so long since I-"

"Oh have it before the guilt trip kills me." Ada facepalmed and handed him the half empty can. "If you tell anyone I'll feed you to the horses."

"They don't eat meat! Do they?" For a moment his face was so comically horrified both women burst into laughter.

"I can starve them," growled Ada.

"Well, what do we have here? If it isn't the redneck's whore." An icy voice broke into their little bubble, squashing the good mood.

**Merle POV**

When he reached the camp with the wood he'd gathered he found a ring of people shouting at each other.

_What do I want to bet that Ada is one of the people inside that circle? Oh look, winner winner chicken dinner_.

"What in hell is going on here?" he shouted, clearing a path through the crowd.

"I don't know. What's a whore?" asked Carl conversationally, earning himself a clip round the ear from Lori.

"Who's a what now?" _Where did you hear that word, buddy? And why in hell do you not already know what one is? What the hell kinda education's your daddy been remiss in giving you?_

"Andrea called Ada 'the redneck's whore'." said Carol, sidling up to Merle quietly. "We were just sitting talking when she bust in on us and started this."

"Oh…" His head swivelled to a very angry Ada, currently being held around the middle by T-Dog. "shit."

Merle looked from Ada to Andrea and back again. Andrea was struggling to get at Ada but Ada was just leaning toward her…for now. They both had some new bruises. It galled him to do it but he owed T-Dog a little gratitude for keeping his half of the fighting pair away from the other.

"Let her go, amigo. I got her." T-Dog was so surprised at the lack of a gun or knife accompanying the request that he complied immediately. Ada stayed put, her eyes not leaving Andrea's as Merle reached her and took her arm in his hand. He felt Daryl come up behind him and knew his crossbow would be pointing at the ground but could be raised in a second. _Feels good to have him backing me up again_.

"She," hissed Ada angrily, "was _fishing_ all morning when she didn't even know you were back. As far as she was concerned leaving you on that roof was the right thing to do and if you were dead that was even better." _Blondie said what?_

"He's a danger to everyone here and should have bitten it up on that roof in Atlanta. I was fishing to feed the group and I'm damn well not going to apologise for not caring about this idiot while I was doing it." Andrea was equally pissed off and staring daggers at both of them.

"Bull. Shit. You all had your own hand in what happened up there. Didn't any of you notice he was in withdrawal and had the shakes?" She looked around at the group and several had the decency to look embarrassed, especially Morales, who looked away.

"He should have been rationed _twice_ as much water as anyone else. Instead, you let him stand up on that roof with no shade and no water." She was panting, her whole body trembling in an effort not to dive for Andrea again. "Of course he flipped. It's a measure of the control he _does_ have that he didn't kill any of you when it happened. So don't you go looking at him like he's less than you. Don't you fucking dare." _My warrior woman_.

"It's not that simple, Ada," began Shane. "He's been an issue the entire time he's been with us."

"An issue?" Merle asked softly. "And when exactly was that? When I was fighting to protect you? When I was hunting and putting food on the table?" _Keep your eyes off her, Creep. Don't think I'll let that shit slide_.

"You people." Ada was livid. "You stand by and do nothing while violence and deprivation create a man like Merle, then you hate him for it. Let me tell you, that guy who beats his wife, Ed, while you're all studiously ignoring the fact that he's doing it." She threw an apologetic look at Carol for bringing her into it.

"That's the monster, not the children who grow up with it and turn on the world because all they've ever known is that the world will turn on them and not try to understand them. You don't get to punish him for that."

_Little brother's right; she is sure. Am I?_

She whirled around and stomped out of the circle, turning back to shout at them. "FUCK…all of you." And she disappeared into the trees.

"She has a temper." Daryl remarked in an almost complimentary tone.

"Yup." Merle ignored everyone but his brother and stared thoughtfully at the trees into which Ada had stormed.

"We should probably go get her."

"Yup."

"Think she has any idea where she's going?"

"Nope."

"You're worried she's gonna to kick you in the nuts aren't ya?"

"Pretty much. Maybe we should just wait a little-"

"MERLE!" A voice shouted from the trees. Seconds later Ada exploded from them, running full pelt toward the group. "Walkers!"

**Narrative POV**

People scattered everywhere, looking for weapons they could grab. Several people nearer the woods were overwhelmed as a large herd of walkers stumbled out of the trees. Merle hooked an arm around Ada as she reached him and swung round in a half circle, propelling her away from them with even greater momentum even as he brought his other hand to bear with the machete.

"Ada, go!" He heard her feet running in the opposite direction and concentrated on the swing and swoosh of his blade, seeing Daryl taking down the ones farther away with his crossbow.

People near the Winnebago were being taken down and he saw Jim appear with a shovel to hack away at a walker that had Amy's throat buried in its mouth. A bolt from his brother's bow took down one shambling corpse inches away from sinking its teeth into Carol as she stood there screaming for her daughter, who was nowhere to be seen.

Morales was swinging a baseball bat into the heads of the dead, cutting a desperately shrinking circle around his family. He saw Merle drop two of them as he ran past, throwing a blade at his feet as he went. He grabbed it and pushed it into his wife's hands so she could deal with the ones that got past his bat.

Shane had to pull Andrea away from her sister as her grief was blinding her to the walkers bearing down on her. He pressed a gun into her hand and moved in a semicircle around her, firing his other gun with one hand and slashing out with a blade in the other.

Merle reached the area where Grimes and Lori were fighting a large pack and put himself at a point triangular to theirs, adding his machete to their gun and knife. He felt rather than heard Ada run past him again, this time toward the walkers. She held a pair of flared shortswords in her hands, their black anodised blades cutting through air and flesh.

His attention stayed on the ones he was fighting but he could see her from the corner of his eye and his heart hammered as he saw every walker she cut down and how close it came to taking her with it. She was turning full circles on her toes as she moved forwards, the swords whirring perfect arcs in her hands as she spun through cuts and slices last seen on Roman friezes two thousand years ago. She was dancing with them.

In another part of the camp, Carl reached a terrified Sophia and pulled her out of the way of a walker. He kept hold of her hand and dragged her away from the camp area and toward Ada's big rig.

"Ada said we had to go to the horses if something happened."

"I don't want to go there without Mom. She might be there. She scares me."

"Why?"

"Because she's not scared of Mr Dixon."

"I think he's her boyfriend. Or husband or something. You can't be scared of your husband." Carl's child logic seemed sound so she let him pull her along, but Sophia wasn't sure it applied to her own mom, who sometimes looked scared of her daddy.

He pulled her to the area where the horses were kept. Boudicca was close to the trailer, keeping Sola behind her, while Thunderchild and Mammon were kicking any stragglers that got too close, but the numbers were getting bigger. Boudicca surged toward them as they got close and Carl thought for a moment that the mare was attacking them, but she snaked her head low and herded them roughly into the corner, where they crouched down with their arms around the foal.

Daryl had moved steadily between two points after Merle ran to the other side of the clearing. The numbers he was killing were increasing as he neared the trailer and he heard the horses squealing. One of them was screaming loudly, which he assumed must be the stallion. But when he reached them he saw that it wasn't Thunderchild that was screaming but Boudicca.

The stallion and the colt were running a wide perimeter around the area and Daryl could see the huge black head rearing up and then drop suddenly as he brought his hooves down viciously on head after head. It was difficult to see him in the growing darkness but it was an impressive sight. He turned to see Boudicca's cloud coloured form being pressed on all sides by the large group of walkers that had splintered off from the main herd. If Thunderchild was the night, then she was the lightning.

She had herded her filly and the two children into the corner created by the angle of the rig's cab and trailer and was a whirlwind of blind fury as she killed without mercy everything that came near them. She screamed and dove, slicing through the walkers surrounding them. His heart caught in his mouth as he saw one of the children move too close to a walker, only to be grabbed roughly by the arm in Boudicca's teeth and flung it back with the other.

Daryl moved into position and started firing.

"OK, guys, let's get this done quickly."

As they took down corpse after corpse with crossbow bolts and spiked hooves, Daryl heard the screams from the rest of the group getting fewer. He would have to wait a while longer to find out how great their losses had been.

* * *

><p><strong>Argh half past three in the morning and just finished this, hopefully the chapter's less tired than I am. lol. Leave me some love :D<strong>


	11. Chapter 11 - Parlay

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. I refuse to watch the episode - or past it - where Merle dies in the tv series btw so there's probably a lot of information that comes in the later series that I won't know because I won't be watching them. But I'm recreating almost everything from scratch so it shouldn't make much difference other than I'll be without the backstories of some characters that you may know. Which is why I'll be using things in strange orders and creating new characters for the most part.**

**Huge thanks to Mrs Sorbo for your reviews; I can't PM you as you have PMs turned off but I really appreciate you taking the time to leave such enthusiastic reviews! :)**

**Thanks also to Mrs Padackles :) your support is a big help in staying motivated to keep the story going.**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Kyla la Grange - Been better**

**Stacey Earle - Just another day**

**Chapter 11 - Parlay**

**Narrative POV**

Rick sat on the hillside in the weak sunlight, bloody and tired, clutching his walky-talky. He felt as haggard as he looked, having had no sleep at all during the night, even after the last of the walkers had been dealt with. He still hadn't gotten through to Morgan, but he'd felt compelled to warn him, if he still lived and listened, that the city belonged to the dead now, not the living. Any who chanced their luck there now would perish. He hoped that Morgan wasn't one of them.

"We need to have words back at camp. Ada and the Dixons are waiting to talk to you," said Shane, walking up beside him.

"We have dead to bury and living to count. Can't it wait?" Rick said wearily.

"I don't think so, no." Shane's gaze was grim and steady as he crouched on his haunches in the long grass. This was something Rick needed to hear. "The others are busy taking care of clearing the walkers and preparing our own for burial. We can keep the meeting brief. Then we need to deal with Andrea."

"She still won't leave her sister?"

"No. Lori tried to get her to understand that we need to take Amy's body away but she won't let anyone near it right now. Dale may try, but you know how close he is to her and was to Amy. He'll likely just pay his respects."

"I take it you're keeping Ada and the Dixon brothers away from her?"

"Yep. That's one powder keg we don't need blowing up while we have a pile of bodies to deal with."

"She was right, though. We blamed everything on Dixon and we…I left him there like we wouldn't have left an animal. They should have known he was going to break, and I should have assessed the situation better when I got there."

"You couldn't have known-" He cut Shane off with a sharp look.

"Yeah, I could. That's exactly what I could have known, or what the hell else was all my training for? How many strung out junkies did we deal with before all this? Hundreds. But I heard him running his mouth and ignored the obvious. I haven't done something I feel this ashamed about for a very long time."

"If you insist on taking your share of the blame, you have to admit the rest of the scavenge team had as much to do with it. I know damn well what T-Dog and Morales are like when they get together with Andrea. They had the team's water and I bet my left nut they refused to give him any because he'd been being an asshole all day."

"If things hadn't gone the way they did, we could have been responsible for murder. Teammates have to have each others' backs whether they love or hate each other. We don't have the luxury of forgetting that."

"That may not always be possible. There may be hard choices to make if-"

"That's not going to be one of them. This isn't survival of the fittest. Not yet. If we choose to live as a community, then everyone is valued the same and we don't discard people just because they're obnoxious or weaker. We don't leave a man behind again." Rick's tone brooked no argument and Shane kept his mouth shut though he could see flaws in what he thought was Rick's naivety.

They made their way back to camp and Rick narrowly missed being shot by Andrea when he tried to talk to her about her sister's body. They asked Dale to keep an eye on her as so far she wouldn't let anyone do what was necessary to prevent Amy's body from reanimating. Time was getting short and they couldn't risk anyone's safety.

When they reached Rick's tent, Lori was already sitting outside with Carl beside her and Merle, Daryl and Ada around her cleaning their weapons. Rick ruffled Carl's hair and sat down with his back to the tent.

"I know you came to talk some things through with us, but I wanted to say thank you first." Rick looked at Daryl. "For keeping our son and Sophia safe last night." Daryl just nodded, his expression not changing. This seemed to be about on Rick's level as he carried on. "So, what is it you need to discuss?"

"There are some things that I think you should know about. It would be helpful if we knew where the group stands as to leadership first, though. Is there any? Is it needed, or is the group a democracy?" Ada asked, glancing between Rick and Shane.

"I think the honest answer is we don't know." Shane rubbed his hand over his head in thought. "I seemed to lead before Rick showed up, but when we were partners in the sheriff's department he was senior and took the lead, has more training than I do."

"I did notice everyone seems to defer to the good sheriff here." Merle nodded in Rick's direction. "If that's a natural leaning in the group, it might be worth taking heed of." Daryl nodded.

"Do you…is there any kind of idea as to what kind of life you and these people want?" Ada asked, looking between all three of them.

"So far the idea has been to be alive to have one. We never got further than that." Shane shrugged and Lori nodded in agreement.

"I think you need to go further than that," said Ada. "My experience with other groups hasn't been good. And believe me, they _do_ have ideas about what they want, and none of them are pleasant."

"Not pleasant how?" asked Daryl, settling down on the ground next to his brother. Ada looked at the trees while she ordered her words in her head before speaking.

"They outnumber us to begin with, every group I've known so far. That in itself should be enough to make us…uncomfortable about just sitting pretty."

"We would always be careful when approaching or being approached by any other group," said Shane. "That's just common sense."

"I don't think being careful is enough." Ada leant back with her palms flat on the ground and crossed her ankles. "The groups I met, they were different from this one. A lot different. I nearly refused to come with Merle because of the bad experiences I've had with them." She looked pointedly at Lori and slid her eyes sideways at Carl. Lori nodded.

"Carl, honey, I need you to go find Dale and see if he needs help with anything. This is going to take longer than we thought. Stay with him until I come get you OK?" Her son nodded and kissed her cheek before walking off back toward the camp.

"Did they attack you?" asked Lori.

"Some did. Some were more subtle about their agendas." Ada slipped one of her hands into Merle's. He might not like what he was about to hear. "What you need to understand, particularly in light of the numbers we lost last night, is that this group is already its own worst enemy."

"Excuse me? I think we-" Rick raised his hand to stop Lori. He wanted to hear what the new addition to the group had to say.

"Not counting children and Jim, who's been bitten, you have maybe a dozen people left. That dozen should equal a dozen fighters, but in reality it's only about half that. Us five," she motioned to herself and the brothers, Shane and Rick. "T-Dog and Morales might be a little handy, but that's it."

"We're a mixed group, with a mix of life skills that works for us right now. We can't expect everyone to fight." Lori shook her head.

"But we do have to expect that. The other groups will consider every person a target. They have greater numbers, men particularly, and more weapons. If the men in this group fall, the women will become nothing more than a commodity. And that is the best case scenario, if they fall into the hands of one of the rape crews. You'd be entertainment for the troops at best."

"I would?" Lori raised an eyebrow in offence. "And I suppose you wouldn't?"

"No." Ada said flatly. "I am more capable than you at defending myself. I would kill more successfully or die trying to prevent myself falling into their hands." She felt Merle squeeze her hand tightly but he said nothing.

"You said best case scenario. What is the worst?" asked Rick directly.

"At least one of the groups I came across, possibly a second, do not only eat…animals." She left the words hanging in the air as the faces around her paled a couple shades. She looked at Shane and Rick. "Trust me when I say you don't want to know what I saw."

"My point is, this group seems to be existing under the misapprehension that the walkers are the biggest and only bogeyman and everything else is a bed of roses with a few material hardships. I won't tell you how to run the group, but I do tell you that this group _will_ fall if you don't make or find more weapons and teach everyone to fight, and kill, efficiently. The walkers are the _least_ of our problems."

"I appreciate you have a point to make," said Lori with a haughty tone, "but I don't see why a little scaremongering should force us to turn our group into some kind of miniature militia. And I think that's what you're trying to do, scare us into looking at things your way."

"Trust me, this is not my way. My way would involve a dictatorship not a democracy. A benign dictatorship but a dictatorship nonetheless. The world we had was great while it lasted, but it is gone and democracy will get us killed in this one. We're going back to the stone age and if we can't fit in then we won't last five minutes."

"But what about a cure?" asked Shane. "I heard the CDC was looking for one. If we could make it there, we might have a chance at actually returning the world to the way it was."

"The CDC? The last group I met was on their way there. That was four weeks ago. If they reached it, trust me there is no-one left alive in there to help you." Ada closed her eyes briefly, obviously remembering the group she spoke of.

"That's just supposition! It doesn't mean we shouldn't still try to get there!" Shane almost shouted. Merle caught his eye and shook his head in a slow threat. _Don't raise your voice to her, Creep_.

"It…kinda does." Everyone looked at Daryl. Normally only wading in on issues that involved either hunting or his brother, he looked determined. "Shane, dragging the group all the way to the CDC knowing that a hostile group was already headed there weeks ago makes no sense. Frankly it's dangerous and it's a plan that don't serve the group. Think, for Christ's sake."

"Then we need to leave and try and find a more permanent settlement. Somewhere with buildings, something we can defend, and land we can cultivate," he countered forcefully.

"Why do all of your plans involve leaving? We have sheer cliffs for defence here and more fertile soil than we'd find on any farm, it's gone untouched that long." Daryl dug the tip of his knife into the dark brown loam for emphasis.

"Why? Take a look at the number of bodies in the camp and ask me that again." Shane looked at Daryl in disgust. But he was the only one.

"I've seen 'em. And every one of them could have been avoided with weapons training and better planning and a whole lot of not sitting around playing Swiss Family Robinson. World's gone, man. Christ. Use your head." Daryl flopped back on the grass in frustration.

"Daryl's right about the cliffs," said Ada. "They put us in a good position defensively. That herd of walkers is gone and we haven't seen more in the woods. Having both the high ground, low ground and sheer cliffs like we do, we can make this place almost completely walkerproof. And training to fight will give us the best chance against hostile groups."

"You're actually suggesting we stay here?" Lori asked incredulously. "That's your best plan?"

"No, my best plan was head to the Canadian wilderness where walkers can't walk for at least half the year because they're frozen stiff without any body heat. But for you, us, for now, yes it's my best plan."

"And you're qualified to decide this because…?" Rick was genuinely curious.

"I'm a structural engineer. I know how to build. And Jesus this isn't even a building I'm talking about. The most we need here is good, impenetrable fences to limit access to the slopes here and the quarry below." Ada was fast losing patience with Lori, who seemed to have no inclination to even consider the merits of any idea she put forth.

"I ain't gonna try and get anyone to vote, seeing as how it turned out last time I did that," said Merle. "But I'm with the stay here plan. At least for now."

"You too?" Shane was fighting a losing battle. "I thought you at least would be on board with the idea of finding somewhere with high walls or an arms locker." Merle shrugged.

"Sure, we could leave and go find ourselves a big prison or a military base, lots of metal fences, brick walls, doors with locks." Shane looked encouraged by this so he continued quickly.

"And we'd be caged. If a herd of walkers or another group breached those big walls we'd be trapped in there with them. A complex built to keep people in will keep people in, simple as that. I've been in a cage before. Don't intend on spending time in one again." Ada looked at him curiously. He just shook his head, indicating that it was a conversation for another time.

"We ain't running." Rick spoke up, his eyes fixed on some spot behind them or in his mind. His fingers tapped a slow rhythm on the earth beneath him.

"Rick-" He cut Lori off.

"Not yet anyway. We need to take the information about the other groups to our own. And I want to run Ada's idea of fortifying our current position by them, see what they think." He gestured to them with both hands. "I don't want to scare them, but maybe our numbers wouldn't have taken the losses they did if we'd been scared sooner." They all nodded, Lori reluctantly.

**Merle POV**

Merle stood, pulling Ada up next to him as Rick finished and moved off through the trees with Creep and Daryl. They were going to add their own backs to the efforts already going on in the camp to clear as many of the dead away as possible.

He kissed the top of Ada's head quickly and waited for her to pick up the two blades she'd been cleaning while they waited for Rick earlier. Gonna have to ask her about those. _They're wicked little things, and double sided. Maybe better than a machete by a good stretch_.

"You're going to make weapons aren't you?" asked Lori, her mouth grim. "Whatever the group decides." Ada just nodded, only half her attention on what she'd said.

"You're going to ruin this group. I'm trying to protect my child from what's going on around us and you want to turn us into some kind of army."

"No I want us to be able to defend ourselves from one, which is what we'll be dealing with at some point when we come across one of the other groups."

"We were doing just fine. We haven't met any of these other groups you've talked about."

"And that's probably why you've been 'fine'." Ada deliberately held her shortswords at a forty-five degree angle, not pointing at Lori but not not pointing at her either. Lori shifted nervously. _It's bad that I like it when she pisses people off just for the hell of it, right?_

"I know you like the idea that you can exist as a peaceful community, but Daryl's right; subsisting on basic skills as if this is some kind of wilderness retreat isn't helping. Whether you choose to continue living unprepared for worse things or not, worse things will come." Ada held Lori's gaze steadily, her body stiff.

"I won't be dictated to by the odds you choose. I will make weapons and I will train anyone who wants to learn how to use them. Understand?" Lori nodded tightly, her eyes resentful, and Ada lowered the swords to point at the ground again.

"There's no point in this, Lori. We likely never will be friends, but that doesn't mean we have to spend weeks, months, pissing in each other's cornflakes over things that are none of each other's business. The only person who'll win in all of that is Merle, 'cause he'll get lots of angry sex." _Wait…what? Don't I get a say in this?_

"Do you really want to be responsible for making him that happy?" Lori made a face. "Didn't think so. So back off." It was a warning but it was given with a smile and Ada patted Merle's chest as she turned past him and walked away.

"Just so you know, I vote y'all stay pissed at each other." Merle winked at Lori and sauntered after Ada.

He caught up with her and wrapped an arm around her as they walked.

"You know, you were kinda an asshole to her."

"I know."

"I like it." He gave her a squeeze before dropping his arm.

"I know that, too," she laughed.

"I'm gonna help clear the walkers. You gonna join burial detail?" he asked, keeping his eye on what seemed to be a heated discussion between Shane, Rick and his brother. Ada shook her head.

"I want to go see if Carol's OK. I haven't seen her since she came and got Sophia last night. Sophia's been around but Carol hasn't."

"Come find me when you're done." He touched her hand and turned away, heading over to Rick, who was currently pointing a gun at his brother's head. _First me, now Daryl. Officer Friendly, you might be a pain in the ass but I like your lack of beating around the bush_.

**Narrative POV**

Ada picked her way across the rocky ground to Carol and Ed's tent. The flap was closed and there was no sound to indicate whether anyone was home or not. She placed a hand on the thick canvas and opened the flap a crack.

"Carol?" Nothing. "Ed?" She stepped inside.

"Carol? Are you OK?" Carol was sitting completely still on the edge of Ed's cot, one hand flat on the mattress next to his larger one while he slept. Ada could see the signs of Shane's beating still visible on his skin. Carol didn't look up.

"I was going to stand up to him," she said softly. "I had made up my mind. After you let me take my frustrations out on your anvil, I realised that the satisfaction, the release, I got from hitting it…was what he must have felt every time he hit me. I felt so sick." Carol sat back and Ada saw the ruin of Ed's torso. He wasn't sleeping. "I was going to stand up to him. I was."

"Oh, Carol." Ada moved closer and put her hands on Carol's shoulders, squeezing.

"Now I can't." She gripped Ada's fingers tightly. "Now I won't ever get the chance to and I'm so…_angry_ that he'll never see that I'm stronger than he wanted to let me be."

"Maybe he can. Kinda." Ada sounded uncomfortable but she carried on. "Carol, we have to move him. He can't wake up here."

"Help me?" Carol looked up at her and she nodded.

"Come on, you can't keep these sheets, let's use them to carry him away from the tent." Carol wiped away angry tears and stood, looking more determined.

They half wrapped Ed in the sheets and carried him away from the tent, near the cliff's edge and deposited him on the rocky ground. Carol dropped her end very abruptly, which caused a cracking sound as his head met a large boulder. Ada raised an eyebrow but Carol just shrugged. It was small consolation, petty.

"Carol I will be right back, stay here OK?" She nodded and Ada ran back to the area where she'd last seen the disposal crew taking headshots at the members of the group who hadn't made it so they could be buried without reanimating. She saw Daryl swinging a pickaxe into the head of a red haired man on the ground and let out a sharp two fingered whistle to get his attention. His head snapped up.

"Need you. Come on." She gestured him to come with her and ran off without waiting for a reply. He swung the pickaxe down into the head of the last body in his row and wrenched it out sharply before stepping over it and jogging after her.

He found her next to Carol near the edge of the cliff, Ed's body at their feet. The sheet they'd wrapped him in had blown away and the damage to his torso and legs was obvious. Couldn't say he felt sorry for the bastard. Ada walked up to him and pulled the pickaxe out of his hands without a word.

"Hey-"

"Quit whining; you'll get it back in a minute. Have one of these if it'll make you feel better." She threw the handle of one of her shortswords toward him, not looking to see if he caught it or not. He did, after a brief fumble. Ada went back to Carol and pressed the pickaxe into her hands. The fingers of Ed's corpse were beginning the move minutely.

"Wait," said Ada as Carol gingerly brought the pickaxe up above Ed's head. She grabbed the back of Carol's shirt and pulled her back a few steps. "Wait."

Ed's corpse rocked and clawed the air aimlessly for a while before staggering to its feet. It looked around it, smelling for food. Not that food would be much good to it. Most of the viscera and soft tissue below the sternum was gone and the stomach was hanging in tatters. He caught their scent and turned toward them, blind eyes moving lazily in their sockets.

Daryl went to intercept the corpse but found Ada's arm across his middle holding him back.

"Wait." She dropped her arm and ignored his glare.

"Go tell him." Ada gave Carol a push toward him and nodded sharply at her. The realisation that registered on Carol's face was staggering.

She didn't shout. Neither Daryl nor Ada could hear anything of what she said, but her lips were moving as she took a hesitant step closer to the corpse of her late husband. She retreated quickly as he lurched toward her, then with a shake of her shoulders, seemed to find the courage to step forward again. With a few hesitant jerks as she found the weight of the pickaxe, Carol took one more step forward and swung it into Ed's head with a guttural moan.

She gagged and pulled it out of his head, letting his body fall to the ground, then swung it into his head again. And again. After the third strike she shook the point out of his skull and stood there taking deep breaths, one hand on her forehead as she looked down at him.

She turned and walked back to them, throwing the pickaxe back to Daryl and touching her head to Ada's for a second with an arm loosely around her waist.

"Thanks, Pookie," she whispered before letting go and walking off toward the camp without a word.

"Thanks for the backup," said Ada, looking at Daryl and holding her hand out for her shortsword. He slapped the handle into her hand with a huff.

"That was risky." He glared at her.

"It was necessary," she retorted, slipping the blade into the scabbard harness on her back.

"It was risky," he repeated, turning his back on her and heading back to the others.

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed that :)<strong>


	12. Chapter 12 - Grave

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. I realise 99% of you probably don't care about the playlist that goes with the story, but if anyone at all has listened to it I'd love to hear what you think about how it fits with the story :) **

**Changed Amy's necklace, coz I couldn't make the mermaid work. And just realised, me being from the UK and most of my readers being American, you understand that when I talk about the trailer on the back of Ada's rig I mean the big box part of a truck with double doors on the back end, right, not a trailer-home trailer? Those are called mobile homes here and I only just remembered that you call them trailers and didn't want to confuse anyone into thinking she had a bigass caravan thingy back there. It's 100% truck.**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Neko Case - Furnace room lullaby**

**Drovers - When fortune turns her wheel**

**Chapter 12 - Grave**

**Narrative POV**

Rick and Shane slung the last walker body into the rising flames and Rick took a moment to cast weary eyes around the rest of the camp. Andrea still hovered over her sister's body and the row of bodies to which Daryl had had to deal final blows to the head was far too large. He looked at Ada, who was helping Glenn move the bodies of their own people for burial.

He told them to switch out with T-Dog and Morales when a heated argument about which bodies should be burnt or buried broke out between Glenn and Daryl. Daryl had stormed off into the woods, angry that more concern was shown for their dead than had been for his brother only days earlier.

"You still think walkers are the least of our worries?" said Rick, moving to Ada's side.

"Yes." She held his gaze, eyes unwavering.

"Well, alright then." He looked resigned. "We'll talk with the group later. Everyone's too tired for now, though."

"Probably hungry, too. I can get some food to pass out to everyone. I'm kinda in the way with how they're all feeling about losing their friends. And family." She glanced over at Andrea as a shot rang out and she collapsed on her sister's body. "But I can feed everyone."

"We could all use it. Thanks."

"Sure."

She walked off toward her rig but, seeing Andrea, thought better of it and headed to a butt of water. She took a cup of it and put it silently on the ground next to the weeping woman, glancing briefly at the necklace around her dead sister's neck. It was pretty, a little twisting gold cage with a spark of iridescence in the centre, and reminded her of a dragonfly in an abstract way.

She went back to the trailer and took out tins of hotdogs and some bread rolls. While the sausages cooked in water over the camp's fire, she set to work banking up her forge with the last of her charcoal, mentally apologising to Daryl for making him wait to get his knife fixed. It would have taken more than this anyway to reforge such a quality blade into functionality. She enlisted the help of Carl and Sophia to hand out the food to everyone while she sorted through pieces of metal, trying to find some suitable for what she wanted.

Three thick iron ingots about fifteen inches long and eight smaller, thinner bars were chosen and she started by forging two of the larger together, end to end, to make one long rod. Laying that and the other large ingot in the coals until they glowed white, she began to hammer them together at one point to fix one across the other at right angles. She worked both bars with hard blows of the hammer, flattening and lengthening them gradually.

As she worked, Ada's mind flickered to Andrea and the sister she had lost. She had never had a sibling but she understood that the other woman had lost a part of herself, something so deeply bound to her that it must feel cut away. She felt her heart clench as the knowledge of what she was going through filtered through her mind. Then her mind traitorously replaced Andrea with Merle and the pain that cramped inside her ribcage was beyond imagining.

Tears started to fall as her arm brought the hammer down again and again, working the metal, moving with a mind of its own. What if Merle had lost Daryl? The thought of him feeling that kind of loss made her breath come harder as the tears continued to trickle down her cheeks in tight formation.

Merle had wandered over to the area by the trailer when he heard the first ringing tones of hammer on iron. Ada was turned mostly away from him and he rested his back against a thin sapling and watched her body bend and tauten with every blow. The muscles in her arms clenched and released beneath her skin in a rhythm that was relaxing to watch.

His mind tuned out the rest of the camp as he watched her, finding a dark kind of sensuality in the way she beat the white hot metal, bending it to her will. It was violent and visceral, watching her forge something from fire. He imagined her heart might have been forged in the same way, burning fierce and free.

As she started attaching slim spokes around the lower part of the larger rod he stood straight again and moved around in a circle so he could face her, thinking only that he wanted to touch her so much it was making his fingers ache with not doing it. But when he moved far enough around that he could see her face, the tears on her cheeks made him stop.

"Ada." She didn't hear him and he saw her breath hitch as she tried to contain what was going on inside her head. "Ada?" She looked up at him and he was overwhelmed with an urgent need to know what had made her look so lost. "Ada, why are you crying? Are you hurt, woman?" He rubbed the back of his neck and balanced uncomfortably on the balls of his feet. Upset people were not his speciality, even ones he may give some kind of a shit about.

She shook her head and pulled the piece of metal from the hot coals. She kept working on the thin metal spokes, using heavy pliers to spiral them around the large, central rod and joining them to it at the other end.

"I was thinking about Andrea. She just lost the only someone left in the world that she loved and loved her. It must hurt so much." Her voice had a slight tremor in it.

"Andrea? But you were fighting only last night." She chuffed a grim laugh through her tears.

"Then I started thinking what if it had been you, what if you had lost your brother." She turned her creation this way and that, finally satisfied that it was finished, and laid it down on the ground with a shuddering breath. She took the two steps it took to reach him and flung her arms around him, kissing him with a kind of desperation, little fingers gripping hard at his shoulders. He could feel the shivers running through her as she leant back to look up at him.

"I will look out for him," she said in an urgent whisper, her grey eyes stormy.

"Daryl?" She nodded.

"If you can't be there, I will protect him, so you don't ever have to feel what Andrea's feeling right now." She kissed him again clumsily and picked up the now cooled metal from the ground, hurrying away. Merle was left standing there to experience the utterly unfamiliar feeling of having someone else worry about his pain.

Andrea's legs were numb. She couldn't have stood unaided if she'd tried. As it was, trying was the last thing she wanted to do right now. This was now a world without her baby sister in it, and she didn't know if she could find a way to be in it without her. Through her wandering thoughts, which were noisy and unfocused, she heard soft footsteps. Whoever it was laid something down next to her.

In the dirt lay a black iron cross about three feet high. The ends were tapered like spades on playing cards and a cage of thin metal rods spiralled around the heart of it, from below to above where the bars crossed, in the shape of the necklace she had given Amy for her birthday. A single drop of water fell on the ground next to the cross and the footsteps walked away again.

Carol had just finished making up a new bed in her tent, having thrown out the one that Ed had died on. All of his belongings that were of no use were slung into a pile twenty feet away. She figured that anyone who wanted something would take it. She heard movement and shortly afterwards a hand pushed aside the flap of the tent. Ada's blonde head dipped into the opening as she stepped inside.

"I came to see how you were," she said, straightening up with a shaky smile.

"Better than you by the looks of things," said Carol after a short silence and a probing look. "Want to talk about it?" Ada just shook her head and sat on the other side of the bed. "I threw out all of Ed's things. I can't stand to look at them."

"How is Sophia taking it?"

"She feels guilty. About what she said about him. And she's torn, there's no doubt about that. She was starting to get uncomfortable around his mood swings, but he was still her daddy. She misses him."

"That probably won't go away any time soon. Trust me."

"Strangely, I do." Carol slipped her fingers through Ada's and leant her head on her shoulder.

"Do you miss him?" Ada asked quietly.

"I…notice he's gone. And I try to deal with the relief that hits me each time I realise it."

"What did you say to him? When you killed him."

"Some things that I will take to my own grave." Carol patted her hand. "But the last thing I said was…I told him Sophia loved him, and I told him goodbye. It wasn't 'I forgive you'. But it was 'I can forgive myself'. And I can. And I have to, because I was part of it."

"No, Carol you-"

"Yes. Yes I was. I let him do it. I could have asked any of a hundred different people for help. And I never did." Carol's fingers plucked at the bed linens beneath them. "But in the end, I helped myself. Not that I would have known how if you hadn't pointed me in the right direction. But I can try and find something in me that wants to be one of the ones left alive now."

"Now that he's gone?"

"Now that he's gone."

**Merle POV**

He had already asked Dale, who had said she'd been with Andrea, and Rick who had said she'd been helping Glenn move bodies, and Glenn who had said she'd maybe been trying to do something with Morales, but no-one knew where she was. Merle was beginning to get a sight irritated that she'd just taken off, although he wasn't sure exactly why.

"Hey, kids. Oh for Chri-ing out loud I ain't gonna eat ya." Sophia didn't look like she believed him. "Carl, did you see where Ada went?"

"No, I haven't seen her since she made the food."

"It was her that did that?"

"Who else has hotdogs?" Carl grinned. _The kid has a point_. "She gave them all to us and told us to give them out to everyone."

"All of them? She didn't have any herself?" Carl shook his head no. _Grrr_. "Goddamn stubborn ass woman." Sophia looked slightly scandalised by his language but Carl just sniggered into his hand as Merle stomped off to find his brother.

"Daryl! Where are you, you little shit?" He searched through the trees and nearly punched his brother when he appeared beside him. _Sneaky bastard_.

"You know if you shouted louder the deer I'm planning on hunting tomorrow might hear you as well as this one you've just scared off," Daryl hissed, aggravated. "I've been out here trailing the thing for an hour. Goddamnit, Merle, what in hell do you want?"

"I'm looking for Ada." Merle threw his hands out as if that should be perfectly self explanatory.

"Well she's not in here with me, is she?" snarked his brother.

"Well now I _know that_." Merle said through gritted teeth. He turned on his heel and Daryl had to step double time to keep up with his brisk pace. He marched out of the trees and straight into Ada's rig, his brother close on his heels.

"Hey why do you…holy shiii-" Daryl whistled low under his breath. "She could open a store with all this."

Merle grunted and started crashing around the boxes and shelves in the supply area and cooler, his brother watching him get more and more wound up as he tried to open a packet of something. Then he burned himself starting up the little gas burner she had and cursed a blue streak.

"Have you checked with Carol? Ada helped her kill Ed earlier. Walker-Ed not Ed-Ed." Daryl leaned against the wall, eyeing the haphazard yet semi-efficient way his older brother was putting together the makings of a meal.

"She whut?" Merle slammed a hand on the packet he'd managed to open to stop the contents spilling everywhere and irritating him even more than he already was.

"Think Carol was having trouble with something. So Ada stole my pickaxe and made her skewer Ed's corpse to death with it. Seemed to make her feel better."

"That was risky." _But probably did Carol the world of good. Brave little thing_.

"That's what I said to her."

"You were an asshole about it weren't you?" _Don't deny it, I can picture the look on your face when you said it to her. And the look on hers when she didn't back down. Heh_.

"I was just normal. Christ, Merle."

"That's an asshole to the layman." Merle kicked something hard and cursed. "OK this self sacrificing bullshit stops now. She can't just look after everyone and not herself."

"Huh?"

"All I've heard from the half dozen people I've spoken to in the last two hours is Ada did this and Ada did that and not once did I hear someone else did something for her or that she even did anything for herself. We could have a day this bad every day for the next year and what good will it do her if she doesn't take care of herself?"

"So what're you gonna do about it?"

"I'm gonna go beat some fucking sense into her that's what."

"Is that why you're standing in her trailer making her a meal? Gonna beat her ass into the ground with steak and grits and…is that a fuckin' Twinkie?"

"Shut up."

"Yeah, Merle, you're gonna tell her good, I can see that."

"Will you just stop talking already and go feed and water the horses?" _Get the hell outta my hair if you ain't gonna be helpful_.

"Makes no difference to me." Daryl pushed himself off the wall of the trailer

"No, take three buckets, not two." Merle said, distracted.

"Why?"

"Trust me, you'll need them."

Daryl ignored him and walked toward the path down to the shore with a bucket in each hand. Mammon trotted after him and Merle shrugged. W_ell, he'll just have to find out the hard way_.

Half an hour later he found himself outside Carol's tent with a plate of food in his hand and no idea what he was going to say. _How do I get mad and feed her at the same time? I'm not having second thoughts about giving her a talking to; it's just a…logistical issue_. He tapped on the thick canvas and opened the tent flap cautiously.

Carol looked up at him from the cot where she was snuggled up behind a sleeping Ada. She didn't speak at first, just allowed him the time to look at her while she slept.

"Her heart was hurting when she got here. She's sleeping it off." Merle nodded and put the food down, crouching next to the bed. He pushed a strand of hair behind Ada's ear and rubbed a smudge of soot from her cheek with his thumb before looking at the other woman.

"Will you make sure she eats this when she wakes up? She fed everyone earlier and didn't have any herself."

"Of course." She tilted her head. "You're…you're _pissed_ at her, aren't you? Why?" Carol watched his hands as they touched Ada gently. She generously thought not to mention the tenderness with which he did it or the obvious difficulty he had in moving away from her.

"She's been running around taking care of everyone else and not done a damn thing all day to take care of herself." _And now she's tired herself out and it's not even dark yet_.

"So you decided to feed her?" she asked with a small smile. "You were worried about her."

"I was annoyed with her. There's a difference," he grumbled.

"You know, your brother gets all mean and surly when he's worried. Turned into the devil himself when you were missing. No-one had the nerve to say boo to him in case they got their head bitten off. You sure that doesn't run in the family?"

He mumbled something uncomplimentary and tried to ignore her small tinkle of laughter as he left the tent.

_Smartass womenfolk. How am I supposed to give one a talking to when there's another one laughing at me?_

In the distance he could hear his brother swearing at the colt and it lifted his mood enough to make him chuckle.

_Told ya_.

**Narrative POV**

The most surprising thing about the group meeting later was that Dale was one of the biggest supporters of handing autonomy of the group's leadership over to one person, namely Rick. He'd always been so vocal about doing things the right way, taking everyone's wishes into account, and talking rather than fighting.

"Since my wife died, the only two people I'd really allowed myself to care about were Andrea and Amy." The older man fixed his gaze on the large patch of bloody earth where Amy's body had lain until only an hour ago. "It occurred to me, too late after that walker bit Amy, that the things I am prepared to do to protect the people I care about are not as limited to words as I had thought."

"Speaking of, where is Andrea?" piped up Glenn. "We seem to be missing half the women." Nodding to where Jacqui sat with Morales' wife and children.

"Here," said a voice from behind them. Andrea walked towards them. She looked beyond exhausted and wearily fell to sit in the space Dale made for her next to him.

"Ada's with Carol. She was worn out after making that cross for Amy's grave, among other things" said Merle pointedly, his eyes on Andrea. Her expression was ambivalent and she said nothing, but she was the one to look away first.

"We can't have a group meeting without all the group. What's left of us, anyway," said T-Dog. "Sophia, run and get them would you, kid?" He motioned to Carol's daughter, who nodded silently and ran off in the direction of the tent. "No offence, man, but I just met you, and you nearly got us killed." He looked at Rick.

"He got us _out_, too, T-Dog. We wouldn't still be here if it weren't for him," Glen rebutted.

"Maybe we would, maybe we wouldn't. All I'm saying is he's new and I'm not deciding here and now if I want to follow him or not."

"Look, we ain't voting about that now, not even close," said Rick. "This meeting's about whether we stay put and arm ourselves or not. I just got here, just found my family. Figure we need to see how we work with our new numbers before we go saying this guy or that guy should lead us." He held onto Lori and Carl's hands while he talked, as if he somehow thought he'd be ripped away from them at any second.

"Understood," said Dale. "But we will have to have that conversation sooner or later."

"Then let it be later, Goddamnit. We've buried too many people today. Let's talk about how not to have to do that again." Rick said, ending the line of discussion.

"Who is still with us? We need to know," said Shane, looking around the group. "Jim's bit, we know that much. Carol and Ed OK?"

"As far as I know-" Jacqui started to say.

"Ed's gone," interrupted Daryl from the back. "He was taken care of earlier." Shane just nodded. Ed wasn't much of a loss.

Five minutes later the group saw the two last women arrive, preceded by Sophia. Ada stopped behind Merle and rested her hands on his shoulders, her hips against his back about the height of his shoulder blades. There were several speculative glances passed between the group as they saw Merle lean his head back into her belly in greeting, his eyes closing briefly in some kind of relief or comfort.

He shuffled his feet on the grass, finding a more comfortable sitting position, one that involved leaning as much of him against as much of her as possible. Carol walked further into the circle with Sophia and they sat down arms around each other.

"What are we here to talk about?" asked Carol. "I've been a little out of things most of the day. I had to kill Ed."

There were murmurs of condolence from the others, though they were hushed and not as heartfelt as they had been for Andrea. Carol waved them away, understanding. He hadn't been a good man and they had known it. Hell, she had known it longer than they had so her body was more in shock than in grief.

"We need to make a decision whether to stay here or leave and look for other groups or a better place," said Shane. "Maybe the CDC, where they might have things that could help us, help Jim."

"And which Ada already said had a group of bad people heading for it a month ago," said Rick sharply, pissed at Shane for trying to lead the minds of the group down a route he thought unsafe at best.

"Bad people? Aren't we all just the same, trying to survive?" Jacqui looked around at everyone, clearly confused. Ada sighed, this was going to be a bigger shock to everyone than she'd thought.

"Don't be naive," injected Daryl. "Just 'cause we been lucky to get together without the desire to kill each other for a pair of boots or a meal, don't mean others ain't been doing exactly that all along."

"It's not naive to hope for the best in people." Andrea glared at Daryl, who glared right back at her.

"It is when it means you don't plan for worse. I'd say today was worse, wouldn't you?" Andrea flinched.

"Ada." Daryl looked over at her where she was leant against his brother. "You gotta tell them what you told us. More."

"I, ah, I think the children," Lori looked at Rick for support, "should stay in the Winnebago while we talk. They don't need to hear some of this and they'll be safe there. Rick looked at Morales, who nodded and gave his kids a gentle shove with his hand toward the vehicle.

"Go on, now," Rick said to Carl. "You take Sophia in and we'll come get you when we're done."

"But, Dad, I-"

"No buts, Carl. This is grownup talk and you ain't ready for it yet." Carl huffed and shook his father's hand off of his arm, jerking his chin at Sophia, who obediently followed him into the Winnebago.

"Ada, you want to start us off by telling us all more about the groups you met?" Rick motioned to her and all eyes turned in her direction except Merle's, who could feel the pressure of her grip increase.

"You know," she answered in a tight voice. "I really don't." Her fingers tightened to the point where it started to hurt. Merle reached up and brought her round, pulling her down to sit in front of him and caging her with his legs as he smoothed his hands up and down her arms. She hung her head down for a moment and took several shaky breaths before stilling herself.

"OK." Her voice was tinged with emotion when she looked up at the group. "Do you know how you make a head on a stick?"

* * *

><p><strong>Man I had the most trouble with the group conversation at the end. Thankfully won't be having too many group meetings, but it makes me glad I intend to keep numbers of people fairly low; I'd start losing track otherwise.<strong>


	13. Chapter 13 - Memories

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. So, this would be one of the other reasons the story has an M rating. Dark. Graphic. Tissues may be needed. Oh and FF for some reason doesn't seem to be sending out notifications of new chapters on this story, last one was chapter 10. No idea why.**

**Amended 01.01.15 Thanks to reviewer enchantmentanjel for pointing out that this chapter could be confusing. I've added a lead-in to hopefully make it less so.**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Marilyn Manson - Sweet dreams**

**At Sea - Something in the way**

**Chapter 13 - Memories**

**Narrative POV**

Ada leant back into Merle's chest and sighed heavily, scanning the sea of blank faces. Of course they didn't know; why would they? Why would anyone have cause to know such a vile thing, except those who'd come face to ugly face with it? It was easy enough to know where to start; that day had been a breeze until the run into a new town, which was where it really began.

"I didn't know what I'd find when I went supply hunting in towns, so at the time I was still in the habit of leaving the rig and the horses a few miles outside of town and hoofing it in myself, no pun intended."

"But you'd brought the rig the day you found me," said Merle.

"Yup. Different incident cured me of that. On this occasion, I was damned glad they weren't anywhere nearby." She felt Merle nod and continued. "I'd found a clothes store that hadn't really been touched so I was digging through everything to see what I could carry. I get sidetracked easily so I end up making a big pile of everything I want and have to whittle it down from there."

"Oh, we know how that goes," muttered T-Dog, looking at Andrea, who just shrugged.

"I was pretty focused on what I was doing, but I heard footsteps. Bit too late, though, coz I was surrounded by five people quicker than I should have been if I'd been paying more attention. They seemed pretty chilled at first, friendly and talkative. Something was a little off but I put it down to paranoia on both our parts."

"Not exactly something you can do without these days," commented Daryl.

"True. They wanted to know if I'd join them and seemed cool when I told them no. That right there should have made me nervous. The girl who was stood in the background really quiet and subdued should have rung some alarm bells, too. I guess I was just so glad to see people who weren't trying to kill me or rape me, you know?" The others nodded.

"Did they change their minds?" asked Jacqui.

"Nooo I think they weren't going to take no for an answer right from the start. They were just stalling while one of them came round behind me. I'm pretty sure they didn't hurt me, then, but I think they put something over my mouth. It smelled weird. I didn't know much after that at all. Everything was just…black." Ada shuddered, remembering.

**Flashback POV**

In the beginning, the world was without shape or form. There was only the void, in which she both floated weightlessly yet possessed indefinite mass that stretched toward the event horizon. A voice spoke in the nothingness, and there was light. The light was heavy and pressed up against her from below. So did pain. A single form shuffled across the ceiling and looked down at her.

"Ee-ay etoo ow?" It gestured with a blurry limb of some kind. "Ee-ay?"

"Wh…wha-ee-ay?" Her tongue belonged to someone else. Maybe it wasn't a tongue anymore. Or maybe it had stayed behind in the void because it was frightened of the light. It obviously had the right idea.

"Eefai." The form wobbled closer. It was dark all over and had a large spike coming out of its back. "Eefai etoo ow. Ee-ay?"

Ada returned to the void. Nothing in the void had spikes or spoke in gibberish. Nothing in the void spoke at all. Until the pain began to whisper. That wasn't right; it wasn't supposed to exist here. Then again, neither were ankles, and she was fairly sure that she had at least one of those and it was being pulled by something. The light returned, as well as the figure on the ceiling. It was less blurred now.

It had blue-black cheeks that were stippled with little bumps, making a pattern like a phoenix across a broad face. A mouth was missing two lower teeth. She wondered if the void had swallowed them or if they had been removed as punishment for talking nonsense.

"Eef ai etoo dow ayoo beeay?" She rubbed an ear on a shoulder, then tilted her head to see if she had some of those on the other side, too. She did. "Eef I let a-you down, a-you behave?" She shook her head. She was already being have as far as she knew; standing on the ceiling wasn't going to change that. It clucked at her.

"This will a-not do. You are a-my chosen. Eef a-you do not behave, a-you will join the shunned."

_That sounds fun. Let's do that_.

It tilted its head and she realised that her private thoughts were not as private when she spoke them aloud. Her tongue was both present and braver than she had thought.

"I would prefer…not." The forbidding expression in the eyes was far too real, as was the long spear that was slung across the man's back, decorated with red and yellow tassells near the tip.

Ada flexed her shoulders experimentally, the rest of her body popping into painful existence. The pressure of all the blood in her head made her groan. It wasn't the man in front of her who was on the ceiling. She guessed that her ankles were also suspended, otherwise her shoulders would have dislocated with the weight of her body pulling downward.

"I am Ogechi. I will ask again. If I let you down, will you behave?" His tone was friendly; he might just as well have been asking her how she enjoyed the wine with her meal. But the eyes were calculating and the black irises were surrounded by an untrustworthy jaundice.

There was nothing else for it. She nodded. He was pleased. She didn't think that was a good thing. But he did release the rope from the cleat on the wall, lowering her to the ground.

"You will not be able to move for some time." He lay a thin, scratchy blanket over her aching body. "When you can, do not try to leave. Even I would not be able to save you if you did." He turned quickly and walked out through a door that had been opened by an unseen hand.

She noticed that the spear was placed on his back just so, fitting diagonally through the corners of the door with only inches to spare at either end. She wondered if it was deliberate, or if he simply had such faith in his superiority to immovable objects such as door frames that it did not occur to him that one might dare to impede his forward motion.

The negative image of the open door was the last thing she saw as she sank into sleep.

When she awoke it was to the sensation of being stroked everywhere. It was an intrusive, intimate act, yet it felt threatless. When she opened her eyes, she was met with a flinch from a young woman who, sponge in hand and bowl of water beside her, was washing her from head to toe. When she didn't move, the girl shifted her eyes away and wet the sponge again, bringing it back to continue washing Ada's legs and feet.

It was the girl from the store, she realised. She'd hung back behind the group she was with, skittish and quiet. They'd seemed so nice that she'd assumed the girl was simply one of the more traumatised survivors of the world going mad. Now she thought that perhaps the silence and the constantly flicking eyes had been trying to warn her to leave instead of coming with them.

"You should have left when you had the chance." The girl's voice was low and pleasant, but strained, the voice of someone who lives under constant stress. It was a voice Ada would not hear again until much later when she met a woman at an abandoned quarry, a woman with an abusive husband and a daughter who felt safe with her horses.

"I thought you were just…afraid." She shivered as the water evaporated from her body in the evening air.

"I am. Just not of you." She helped Ada stand and pull on a pair of loose linen pants that tied around the waist. The cream coloured fabric had a homespun feel to it, but was a very fine quality.

The girl raised both arms in the air to indicate that Ada should do the same, and slipped a blouse in the same material over her arms and head. From the chill on her skin, she realised that it was almost entirely backless, leaving her uncovered from the nape of her neck to the small of her back in the shape of an upended eye.

She studied the girl, who was now combing out and braiding her hair into a dozen slim plaits on either side of her head with practised fingers, the gentle tugging pleasant. Her hair was lank and brown and made for a startling contrast with her pasty white skin. Her nose was a little too long and her mouth a bit too small, but the disproportion of her face was offset by the most enormous blue eyes Ada had ever seen.

"Do you have a name?" The fingers paused for a moment before continuing with a touch less surety.

"Probably. But I'm not allowed to remember it. Everyone calls me Apple." She shrugged.

"Why?" The girl dropped the shawl that she wore around her upper body, baring her arms chest. There were so many bite marks marring her skin that Ada couldn't even begin to count them. They crisscrossed over and over, scar tissue upon scar tissue.

"Your Wisher said they found me by the Tree of Knowledge, so it was only right they should all get a taste."

"My Wisher?"

"Ogechi, the serpent. He is second, after Adam. Only the leaders can Wish for a Companion."

"He said that if I wouldn't be Chosen, I would join the shunned. Who are the shunned? Do they get to leave?" Apple just stared at her. Her eyes flicked to the door several times and she cocked an ear to listen. Then she stood quickly and dragged Ada over to the window. She watched as the girl pried at a corner of the dark blue canvas until it popped off of the nail that held it flush against the window frame.

She pulled it up just enough for early evening sunset to soak into the room and motioned for Ada to peek through the gap. She was looking out from the first floor of a house. There was a tiled roof that sloped down below her. Although the sinking sun shone orange from across the far horizon, the ground floor level of the house was in permanent shade. She looked beyond the house and her body went rigid.

"Those are the shunned," the girl whispered next to her ear, making her startle.

There were no bars on the window.

The trees that surrounded the building on all sides were a grotesque chandelier. From the ground to eye level, packed a dozen deep, was an impenetrable, undulating wall of thousands of snapping heads dangled from ropes.

Trying to escape through them would be suicide.

The hopelessness of her situation bowed her knees and a strangled sob escaped as her throat closed up in fear. Whatever they wanted, whoever they had once been or thought they now were, Ada was at the mercy of the people who had done this.

"What is this place?" she asked with a hoarse voice. The girl replaced the canvas on its nail and took the sponge and bowl to the door with her, meeting Ada's eyes before she slipped out into the hallway.

"This is Eden."

**Merle POV**

"I need to stop." Ada squirmed in his arms. _Oh, my Ada, what did they do to you?_ "Please, you don't know…Merle…let me up…_please_…."

He thought about it for a second.

"No." His tone had a ring of finality. Where her legs had drawn up against her, bent at the knee, he crossed his own legs around the front of them. Where her body was wrenching in his arms, he stilled it by wrapping his arms around her even tighter, making a straitjacket of his own body.

_They need to hear this. I don't know much but I know they need to see her like this, falling apart in her memories. It'll help them believe her, but more importantly, it'll help them accept her_.

"Tell us about Eden." His brother had moved forwards to sit beside them, his focus only on her as she struggled. "We ain't got a chance of keeping each other safe if we don't know what's out there." Her head snapped up.

By the way Daryl flinched, Merle knew that the look she levelled at him was haunted and accusing, but he didn't look away.

_You listen to him. He's a better man than me, always has been, and he wouldn't ask if he didn't think you could do it_.

Her body sagged against him but he could still feel every inch of her shaking. He nudged her head around so she half faced him, kissed tears away from her cheeks and leant his forehead against hers so their closed eyelids touched on one side. It was an utterly private moment.

"I know you don't wanna think about it," he said softly to her. "It's just this once, I _promise._ Then we'll do whatever you need to help you forget it. Clean slate, like the rest of us." He looked around the rest of the group as if challenging them to deny her that, them that. Rick nodded once. It was enough.

_About time, Officer Friendly_.

Daryl shuffled closer to sit with his side pressed against the both of them, facing the rest of the group. Carol moved back to sit on the other side, leaning against them in the same manner. _Lending their own strength to give Ada the courage to keep going_.

"Please tell us the rest." Rick looked sick but he was gentle when he spoke. Lori looked even worse but nodded. "Please. We need to know."

Ada took a breath.

**Flashback POV**

Apple came back later to bring her food she couldn't eat. Now that she knew what the wet susurration outside the shaded window was, it turned her stomach.

"You should eat it," said the girl, watching Ada pushing the shrivelled vegetables around her plate. "It's the last meal like this you'll get."

"Are they…" Ada's heart was stopping up her mouth like a cork. She swallowed noisily. "Are they going to kill me?"

"No. They're not. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" The girl nodded, a myriad of emotions on her face.

"Companions can't…don't eat the same as everyone else."

"You said can't."

"I meant don't." She backed away from Ada's angry gaze.

"No you _didn't_. What aren't you telling me? What is a Companion? Is it rape? Some kind of forced marriage? Is it slavery?"

"It's all of those things. And so much more. Or less. Depending on how you look at it."

"Are you one?"

"Me? I…no. I don't know what I am. Maybe I am their…witness." She chokes on the word and Ada's heart goes out to her.

"Do they…hurt people?" Ada asked, her voice the lowest whisper. Apple nodded furiously. "Oh, sweetie. Do they make you watch?"

"Not what they do. But I see them…afterwards." She made a sound like she was gagging and Ada sneaked her fingertips slowly under hers. Apple's eye widened, looking at them like they were snakes.

"Doesn't anyone ever touch you?" She kept going, moving her fingers through Apple's until they were entwined.

"Not…I…no. Not like that. Not…kind." Suddenly her fingers tightened so hard Ada thought her own would snap. She could see the girl's knuckles poking whitely through her thin skin. "Not kind….not kind." Her mouth drew back and her shoulders shook as if she were crying, but in some strange idiosyncrasy her eyes remained dry.

Ada took a chance and drew the girl quickly to her, throwing her arms around her and holding her tight, her chin on her shoulder. Apple's arms hung uselessly by her sides for a moment, before creeping up and up, so slowly, until they were around Ada's waist. She didn't know what to do.

"Tight, like this." Ada gave her a squeeze and felt the girl's arms do the same. "Did anyone do this..before? Do you remember?" The moan that left Apple's lips was wordless, just…pain.

"Yes. I remember this. I think…I think there was someone like me, who looked like me. But younger. Smaller. I think…I think her name was Ellie."

"Was it a sister?" Ada kept her arms tight around Apple's slim ribcage, feeling her shake her head yes.

"She was younger, but older too. Any time I went out, she'd always tell me to be good. Come back safe, sissy, be good. How could I forget her?"

"What happened to her? Did the walkers get her?"

"I…." The girl's heart stuttered. "She wasn't…was with me but wasn't…she wasn't under the tree like I was. Wasn't…wasn't _saved_ like I was."

"Sweetie, what these people did to you, they didn't save you."

"You don't know. You haven't seen."

"Then show me."

"I can't. Oh, God, I can't. What they'd do to me…" Ada could feel the scar tissue of Apple's skin against her own and wondered what would be worse than this or death.

A noise came down the hallway outside the door and Apple flung Ada away from her in panic, looking around her. She fell to her knees, pulling Ada with her and shoving the plate into her hands.

"Please eat it. Please. Please. Whatever he asks, just nod. Don't speak." She lowered her head to look at the ground as Ada started to eat.

Ogechi entered the room on silent feet, pausing to look at the two women knelt on the floor. An oily malevolence permeated the air around him as he leaned over them. He ran a hand over Apple's hair. She didn't move, but Ada saw her lips pull back in disgust. He smoothed the other hand over Ada's head and she felt the tips of his nails graze her scalp. Apple was right, the way he touched was not kind. Gentle, but not kind.

"This pleases me, to see you like this. Tell me," he said, turning to Ada. "Are you also pleased? To be my Chosen? To remain by my side as we recreate the world as He intended?" Ada nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off her food.

"Good. That is very good. Apple will bring you to me at moonrise. Do not look at the others in the room when she does. I do not wish them to covet my choice. We will be together a long, long time, you and I." He swept out the room and Ada raised anxious eyes to Apple's, which were wide with horror.

"Too soon. It's too soon. You shouldn't be…the ceremony shouldn't be performed until the moon is full. Not for another week." She gripped Ada's hands tightly. "There's no time. I thought there would be more time."

"Why would they bring it forward?"

"Adam was talking about somewhere we have to go. Somewhere that is trying to solve the problem with the dead. Seedy-"

"CDC?" She nodded.

"The whole group is going there. Adam said they have to be stopped, that this was the way the world was meant to end, and be reborn. It's why…it's why all the Companions are called Eve. A new start, the way He intended it to be."

"But if I become a Companion tonight, and we all travel, there would be more chance of escape, wouldn't there?" Her heart fell as Apple shook her head in horror.

"The group goes, but the Companions will be…stored." Ada's mind stuttered to a halt as it took in the word. The connotations were…unthinkable.

"How long until moonrise?"

"Another half hour, one at most."

"Apple, I can't stay here for…whatever it is he has planned. I have to get out. Even if I die trying. It has to be better than what they're going to do."

Apple looked panicked for a moment but nodded. That only made Ada more sure that whatever the ceremony entailed, she would wish she hadn't survived it.

"The only way out is through the Hall of Tears. But you have to go past the ceremonial chamber to get there."

"Apple, I won't ask you to show me, if it means they'll hurt you. But if you want to come with me, I will do everything within my power to make sure that both of us get out of here alive."

Apple walked over to the window and unpinned the same corner of canvas as she had earlier and let the murky twilight play across her hand.

"I will help you. But you were right, they didn't save me. I forgot my name, and my sister, just because they told me to. They didn't save me." She continued to let the last of the light dapple her fingers. "We need to go now," she said with quiet surety, turning to look at Ada. The peace in her eyes made Ada's heart sink.

They joined hands and held their breath as they opened the door a crack, easing out without opening it to its full extent. Apple took the lead, gliding along the hall velvetly. Ada's eyes took in other doors, other rooms, candles burning behind glass at intervals. They flickered as she passed them, making her feel increasingly uncertain.

The hallway came to an end with a set of double doors on the left and a set of stairs on the right. Apple pointed a thin finger at the stairs.

"At the bottom are two doors. Go through the one on the right. It will be dark, so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. But you mustn't turn the light on and you mustn't stop."

"I mustn't…no. No! You're coming with me!" Apple ignored her ragged whisper, screwing her eyes up against whatever battle was currently raging inside her.

"Whatever you do don't stop. Don't listen to anything you hear and don't touch anything to your sides. Just walk straight. There's another door at the other end. It leads outside and is bolted from the inside." When she opened her eyes they were peaceful again. "You have to go now."

"Please don't do this. Please don't-" Ada threw her arms around her, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"It's OK. It's OK. It will be. Thank you for…reminding me." She hugged Ada so tight that she couldn't breathe. Then she let go and shoved her hard toward the stairs.

Ada glanced back long enough to see Apple slip through one of the double doors. It took everything she had to make her feet move down one step, two, a third, and finally to move quickly down the rest. All the while her mind churning over the sacrifice the other woman had just made.

The door at the bottom of the stairs was heavy, and as she pushed it open she could hear angry shouts from the room upstairs. _Oh, God, Apple, I'm so sorry. Thank you, I'm sorry, I'm sorry_. She stepped into the dark beyond the door and shut it behind her.

The darkness was absolute, and Ada had to orient herself by pressing her back flat against the door. She could hear her own breathing coming loud and harsh and she fought to calm it. She took one step forward, her hands outstretched in front of her. Not at the sides, not at the sides. Another step, and another, and another. She could hear her breaths calming now, but they seemed out of sync.

She moved slowly forward, not knocking against anything, but expecting to at any moment. It kept bothering her that the room made her breathing sound so strange and she wondered how big it was. Maybe an echo. She held her breath and waited for the echoes to disappear. And waited. And waited.

The room was breathing. Even though her lungs were bursting with the breath she held, she could still hear inhales and exhales, soft and whispering. The panic disoriented her and she stumbled forward, her hand instinctively shooting out to the side to catch herself. A hand caught her and she cried out.

_Oh God oh God oh God. The group would travel…the group would travel but the…the group would travel but the Companions would be_…

"Storage," she whispered.

"Yeesss," a voice hissed in the darkness beside her.

Ada's mind overloaded and she ran blindly forward, evading grasping hands and almost falling flat on her face. She slammed face first into a flat surface.

_Door. Please be door please be door_.

She scrabbled for the sides of it and found a bolt. Her fingers were numb, fear making every movement clumsy. She was hyperventilating, terrified that she was going to die. Die. Down in the dark with only the voices to keep her company.

There were no footsteps. Why were there no footsteps? She forced herself to calm enough to think. They hadn't spoken again and they weren't getting closer as far as she could tell. She could do this. _Find the lock and open the door. Find the lock and open the door. Find the lock and open_…

The door swung open and the lesser darkness poured over her.

She fell through it and stopped, her back to the open maw behind her. She turned slowly, so slowly. What little halflight there was didn't penetrate the room well. What did filter in showed only vague blurs, a whiter black than the rest of the room, like tall furniture covered in dust sheets. _Or mannequins_. Her foot hovered on the threshold, torn between flight and curiosity.

She had to know what she'd escaped. If Apple had given her life or her pain for her freedom, she had to know why.

She stepped back into the room, leaving the door open. She was about to move towards the closest blur, but angry voices falling down the stairs stopped her. They reached a crescendo as they fell level with the door at the opposite end of the room and in the split second it took her to realise they were going to come through that door, she swung her own closed. With her on the inside.

"No! No! You promised me! You promised me I would be shunned! I won't be Chosen! I won't!" Apple's high pitched shriek was deafening as the door swung open. Ada flung herself to the right, hoping to find something to crouch behind.

"Silence!" Ogechi's deeper voice demanded. "You let my Chosen go free. You owe me, girl. We saved you and you spat in our faces. You _will_ serve in her place."

Lights blared. The room, a long, cluttered thing, was illuminated in stark relief. Ada found herself staring at feet poking from beneath a long, off-white piece of cloth. They weren't flat on the floor, they were pointed, drooping towards it, as though their owner was suspended. She forced her head to look upwards.

Above her was a metal frame, like the ones used to hang teaching skeletons in science classrooms and doctors' offices. But what hung from it wasn't a skeleton. Not quite. There was a hood over the head, but the ribcage rose and fell minutely. It was breathing. The body was dressed in the robe of off-white fabric. Obviously meant to be draped from the front, it was open down the back. The flesh beneath it was emaciated, certainly, but not evenly.

Just over halfway up the spine was a brutal looking scar. Everything below that level was atrophied. Ada fought down the bile that rushed into her mouth as she realised what they were. _Heads on sticks. They're heads on sticks, like the POWs in the Vietnam war. Oh…oh God_. With the spinal column severed where it was, the victim was paralysed but remained alive. Alive so it could still be useful, or in this case…enjoyed.

She was thankful to be crouching low to the ground then. The urine that dripped through her pants as her bladder lost control in terror made no noise as it hit the floor. She was frozen. As she heard the two people scuffling at the other end of the room, she willed her body to move but nothing happened. She was left to hold her hands over her face to try and stop any noise escaping her.

Her futile attempts were interrupted by a guttural noise from Ogechi and Apple screamed high and long. Ada slapped her hands over her ears. _He did it he did it to her he did it please please oh please oh help her_. She looked around frantically for something she could use as a weapon and could only find some long metal spikes that looked like they might be used to tether down a giant tent. She picked up one in each hand.

She shuffled sideways like a crab, slowly, silently. It wasn't necessary, it just made her feel less exposed. Apple was still screaming and Ada could see one of her arms now, outstretched on the floor. Farther back her legs and feet drummed a spastic rhythm on the floor as her nerves imploded from their sudden severance from the brain. Ada choked back a sob and edged forward, her eyes on the black hands that held Apple down.

She didn't make a sound. She had meant to cry out, long and loud, scream her rage at him. But nothing came out. She stood there, dumbly staring at the look of surprise on his face and the spikes sticking out from behind his collarbones. The one on his left had gone straight into his heart and he was as incapable of making a sound as she was. He dropped, the point of his spear changing his trajectory, toppling him to lie behind the row of living corpses.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I should have stopped him," she chanted as she scooped Apple off the ground and into her lap.

Apple was sucking in panicked, agonised breaths, her eyes jittering frantically, but the flopping of her limbs has changed to a slow tremble. Her hands clutched at Ada's clothes as she tried to stop gasping long enough to speak.

"You…have…to…leave."

"Nuhuh, we have to leave. But these women, the Companions…I can't let them suffer like this. Do you understand." Apple nodded. "I'm going to prop you over here. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know it hurts."

"It doesn't. Hurt. That's the point," Apple said, her voice devoid of all emotion. Ada cringed and walked towards the draped and hooded bodies. Their breathing seemed to have increased, as if they knew something momentous had happened, was about to happen. And in a way, it was.

Ada pulled one of the spikes out of Ogechi's shoulder and plunged it into his brain. Then she pulled the hood off the nearest figure. A ruin of a face looked back at her. It wasn't alive, not really, only barely more than the walkers. But there was one difference. It was aware. It was horribly aware. Ada held up the spike where it could see it.

The sunken eyes closed once, gratefully, reverently, and stayed closed. Ada took a moment to steady her hand, before plunging it into the heart. It only had enough energy to gasp before it stilled, a little trickle of blood and the final, tidal breath the only things left to prove it had been a person.

She moved from side to side, pulling off the hoods, giving them one last moment of being truly seen by another person, and asking them if they wanted it to end. One managed to speak, the rest were too far gone to show their assent with anything more than a blink or a nod. The fifth one, something about it made her pause when she pulled the hood off.

The sunken eyes were haunted and hollow, big and blue in the wizened young face. She touched a strand of hair, a dark brown just like Apple's. She showed the spike as she had done with the others and it wobbled its head forward, hissing one word.

"Pleeeasse."

She raised the spike and clenched her fist around the spike, ready to strike. Then lowered it again. She put it on top of a box and walked quickly back to Apple.

"I'm sorry, so sorry, but you need to see this." She hooked one arm under her armpits and hoisted her up, taking her knees over the back of the other arm, and carried her to the Companion she had just deshrouded.

For what seemed like an eternity, the paralysed woman and the living corpse stared at each other. Recognition sparked deep in the hollow eyes first, and the creature's head fell back, letting out a rolling howl of agony. Apple's eyes took on the same look a second later, then horror, and something so far beyond grief there would never be a word for it.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo." Apple clutched her hands in the creature's cloth. "Ellie nooooooooooooo." She struggled uselessly, the lower half of her body uncooperative. "Get her down. Get her down please now please get her down." Her words were frantic and scrambled and Ada hurried to put her down so she could comply.

As gently as she could, she unhooked the emaciated woman from the metal frame and lowered her to the floor beside her sister. They clung to each other with a strength that surprised all of them. Ada killed the last two Companions as quickly and mercifully as she could before crouching back down in front of the two sisters.

"I didn't hit any of them in the head. They'll come back soon and their spinal injuries won't matter anymore. I'm going to leave the door open so they can get to the rest of the group," said Ada. "I'm going to drag both of you outside so you can…say your goodbyes." Apple nodded, her sister's head limp on her shoulder.

Ada dragged them both outside, then went back inside the room to open the door at the other end. She closed the one that led outside and sat down with the sisters, who still had their arms wrapped around each other. Apple looked up at her.

"You need us to get through the wall. You have to tie us to your back."

"Sweetie, no. I can find some way through, something to wrap myself in-"

"Please. This is our goodbye, to you as well as to each other. We couldn't do this for each other, so we'll do it together, for you. Please." She struggled to push herself up on an elbow. "I am the Apple. It's all I am. But I was…I was…Sarah. And this is who she was. I want to be Sarah again. Let me be Sarah again. _Please_."

Ada nodded, unable to speak. She picked up some discarded lengths of rope and dragged the two women close to the edge of the snarling wall. She stretched the rope out on the ground and then laid on it, helping the two sisters to crawl up her body. She anchored them there with three loops, knotting the ropes across her chest. Their arms clung to her like babies clinging to their mother. She took a breath and started crawling forwards.

Their cries of pain as she inched under and through the thick mass of snapping teeth were almost more than she could bear. But she kept going, moving as quickly as she dared. She heard no word of complaint from either of them, but she felt their blood flowing down her sides as she struggled under their combined weight.

As she pushed out the other side, all three of them were gasping for desperate breaths. She pulled their legs and feet clear of the heads, then fumbled with the knots to release the ropes. They fell from her limply and she pulled them over to a tree as gently as she could, checking for a pulse. Both still had one, and their eyes fluttered open in faces destroyed by bites, strips of cheek hanging down in bloody ribbons.

The emaciated head wobbled as the two sisters looked at each other, and the younger sister spoke for the last time in a ruined voice.

"Lo-ove you…you…be goood."

Apple…Sarah held out her hand silently and Ada pressed the metal spike into it, folding her fingers around the end. With one last glance, they pulled back their hands and plunged the spike into Ellie's heart, stopping it. Without allowing herself time to hesitate, Ada pulled the spike out and plunged it into Sarah's chest.

She flung herself away from the scene, the two sisters, arms linked, peaceful beneath the Tree of Knowledge. She staggered into the woods, away from the house, leaving Eden for the first and last time.

She walked until her legs wouldn't carry her any more, still miles from her rig and horses. The water from a small stream quenched her thirst as she knelt on its low bank and the reflection rippling in the water, an iridescent semi circle of light, stirred her consciousness.

She flung her head back and bayed at the sky as the moon rose above her, a shattered cry of pain and loss.

**Merle POV**

He didn't feel strong enough, but he held her together as she fell to pieces anyway. Her broken sobs were the only sound, although Glenn was crying silently where he sat. He could feel Carol shaking next to them, even his brother's body was wracked with tremors.

"I left her. Oh God, I left her," she sobbed, her body boneless and exhausted.

"No, no, honey. You gave her her sister back. And when you had the chance to leave someone, you didn't. You didn't." He rocked her as gently as he knew how, trying to absorb some small part of what was twisting her up on the inside.

"We're not safe." Rick raised his head from his hands and looked around the group. Shane looked away. "Not the way we are. We stay here and we arm ourselves, and we learn to fight. And if anyone has a Goddamn thing to say in opposition of that so help me I will knock you down." He stood and walked off, his mouth set in a grim line.

Merle continued to hold Ada as her crying subsided and her breath came in a long sigh of release.

_You didn't leave me, honey, and I know now you never would have. Never could have_. _And why you cared about someone losing their sister, even though they acted like they hated you. You feel everything. Every damn thing_.


	14. Chapter 14 - Mo' drama

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. So what did you think of the last chapter? Kinda the first foray into the darker side of the story. Hopefully it worked. If dark isn't your thing, be warned, there will be a lot of it throughout the rest of the story. There'll be fun, romance, happiness, heartbreak, frustration and probably even some boring filler, too, but plenty of dark. I believe that in this kind of world women basically would become a commodity like fuel or food and be treated as such, so I do lean toward a lot of abuse/rape/torture scenarios, with the people who don't think like that being the exception rather than the rule. To me this keeps it both realistic and also fits in with the fact that I prefer a smaller ensemble cast as opposed to a larger one so I don't get confused with too many people to write.**

**This chapter was tough. Took about eight rewrites before I was happy-ish. So yeah, seriously lost my mojo with this one. Hence the delay.**

**And shit, it's taken me fourteen chapters so far just to cover three days timewise as it relates to the happenings of the tv show. Seeing as so far the wiki timeline puts the series at 500+ days so far since the outbreak that's a lot of writing :O BTW, in my profile there are now links to the story's youtube playlist and to a google spreadsheet showing the story's timeline.  
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**Songs for this chapter:**

**Lifehouse - Sick cycle carousel**

**Faithless - Addictive**

**Chapter 14 - Mo' drama**

**Narrative POV**

"Oh God. It's happening. I'm having a heart attack. I'm only twenty-four years old and I'm having a heart attack." Glenn was pressing his hands against his chest, his legs splayed out in front of him where he sat on the edge of the horse's trough. "I can't breathe. My chests hurts. Jesus it hurts."

"What's he talking about?" T-Dog looked confused, as if he had no idea whether to step closer and help or stay the hell away from the young man. Instead he hopped almost comically from one foot to the other.

"Are you kidding me, Theodore Douglas?" Jacqui pushed him out of the way and knelt down as close to Glenn as she dared, looking back at T-Dog. "Didn't you see him after Ada finished her story? He's having a panic attack. Look at the state of him."

"He's going to hyperventilate and pass out," remarked Shane dispassionately, which earned him a 'you're not helping' look from Rick.

"Can you blame him? Glenn, try to slow your breathing-" Dale didn't get to finish his sentence.

"I'm not breathing!" shouted Glenn, using a volume of air that spoke to the contrary.

"Yes you are, son. And you're doing it too fast. Try and slow it down. Listen to my voice. It's not a heart attack-" All the time he was speaking, Dale was slowly approaching Glenn side on, his hands held out palms down.

"It is! It is! My heart feels like it's going to explode out of my chest," gasped Glenn, wide eyes flitting from one member of the group to another rapidly. He clutched one hand dramatically to his chest. "It feels like there's a tight band around my chest. Isn't that what it's supposed to feel like?"

"Well for Pete's sake, someone help him." Dale looked round at Lori's voice and waved his hands to indicate that's exactly what he was trying to do.

"I wanna see him pass out." The slow drawl was unmistakable. No-one bothered to look at its owner, although several rolled their eyes.

"Merle!" Ada somehow managed to sound utterly scandalised and thoroughly amused..

"Well I do. He was one of the one's that left me in Atlanta. I'd have passed out if I'd stayed there much longer. Don't see why he shouldn't have the pleasure, too." Merle scratched his head lazily, unconcerned in the face of Ada's reproving gaze, and gave her an evil smirk. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"How do you help someone having a panic attack?" asked Morales, his arm looped around his wife.

"Gotta slow their breathing if you want to spare them the indignity of losing consciousness," said Rick. "Which we _do_." He looked pointedly at Merle and Daryl sniggered.

"Do we have a paper bag?" asked Jacqui. "That's how they do it in the movies."

"Great idea; I'm sick of looking at his face. No reason we should be suffering just coz he is." That earned Merle two 'shut up's, three 'Merle!'s and a 'bite me, Dixon'. Merle growled. "Watch it, Chinaman. Just coz you're having yourself a conniption don't mean you can get away with sassing me."

"He's Korean. And you make him breathe into it, idiot." Shane looked disgusted.

"Could you all stop arguing long enough to help him? Please?" asked Carol, Sophia snuggled into her side, her eyes wide as she watched the melodrama unfold. Glenn was still clutching his chest and gasping, and the grownups were all dithering around like they didn't know what to do. Well, except one, as it turned out.

"Oh for Christ's sake," muttered Merle. "If you can't slow that wheezing yer gonna pass out and piss your pants in front of all these ladies. Is that what you want?" Glenn shook his head frantically. "So, slow it down."

"Can't-" Glenn gasped.

"Then can you hold it completely?" Merle scratched an ear, his head tilted to one side and a suspiciously thoughtful expression on his face. Only Ada and Daryl seemed to know where this was headed. Daryl took a step toward him, a hand reaching for his arm, while Ada hid the beginnings of a chuckle behind a cough.

Glenn shook his head again and Merle shrugged, taking a long stride forward. He grabbed the front of the kid's shirt in one fist and pushed him swiftly backwards into the trough, immersing him completely under the water. His legs kicked comically over the sides of the copper tub and his hands punched and slapped at Merle's heavily muscled arms, having little effect.

"How 'bout now?" Merle shouted as he nodded encouragingly to the submerged face with a grin and an exaggerated raise of his eyebrows.

Everyone's voices, shouting and panicked, mixed together in a cacophony of noise as they saw Glenn's hands scrabble frantically. Merle kept him held under. Ten seconds. He felt Daryl's hands trying to prise his grip from the kid in the water but fended him off easily with his free hand. Fifteen. Rick slid in close, his hand on his gun. Thirty. The kid's hands stilled to rest on the sides of the trough. Then one rose up slowly, giving a tentative thumbs up.

Merle hauled the kid up and out of the water, gasping and dripping but apparently calmer. He hunched over with his arms wrapped around his torso as Merle smacked him almost good naturedly around the head.

"Th-thanks, Merle," he managed to stutter, eyes wide.

"If you want something done right, ask a Dixon," Merle said with dark humour and a shake of his head. "Fuck sake, kid. It's getting dark; go change. Ain't no-one here wanting to see your version of a wet t-shirt contest." Ada laughed and walked off toward Carol and her daughter with a quick wave of her hand to the two brothers. Merle took a moment to appreciate the sway of her hips and ass as she moved away from him, before turning to the former sheriff, who was standing next to him, brow furrowed.

"Yeah…thanks, Merle." Rick looked nonplussed and his hand didn't seem to know why it hadn't gotten to use the gun, twitching a little before it lowered to his side again. "Maybe find a method that doesn't involve drowning next time, though." He fiddled with the brim of his hat. "Already feel guilty about cuffing you to a roof. Don't want to have to feel bad about shooting you, too," he muttered gruffly, meeting Merle's eyes. It was both an apology and a warning; Merle simply nodded in recognition.

"Did he just-" Daryl started as Rick walked away and the others scattered one by one, leaving Glenn to shuffle his feet in embarrassment before sloping off to find some dry clothes.

"Apologise?" Merle rubbed a hand across the stubble on his chin. "Reckon he did."

"You gonna make things any easier on him?" Daryl fell in step with him as he made his way over to the ass end of the rig to pick up a bucket of feed one of the horses had overturned during all the shouting.

"Nope. But ain't gonna make 'em harder either. I don't trust him…yet. But he ain't doing a bad job of trying to earn it so far. Can't say as I won't give him another chance." Daryl looked at him wordlessly until Merle dropped his gaze, uncomfortable under the scrutiny.

"You make it sound an awful lot like you're planning on us sticking around here. I figured your original plan of rob these folks blind and set out on our own might have changed some now, but how much?"

"We could do that." Merle nodded slowly, chewing over the idea in his head. It hadn't been in there for three days and he was surprised at how little he liked it now. "But where's the need in it? Ada's got more supplies than the whole group put together and willing to share."

"That's never stopped you fucking someone over before just for the hell of it. You getting soft, brother?" Daryl always knew exactly which buttons to press and, right on cue, the quick flush of anger made its way up Merle's cheeks.

"Hell no. Just ain't got the energy for it right now. Anyway, had it in my head maybe you wanted to stay with the group." Daryl looked at him with the same expression he might if he'd just suggested he take up figure skating.

"Half these people give me the creeps. Always in each other's business, asking for help with this, offering it for that. Why'd you think I want to stay?" Daryl's eyes were darting around while he spoke, and Merle was pretty sure he could tell which ones gave his brother the creeps; his jaw tightened minutely when his eyes lit on some of them but not on others.

"Something you said earlier when we was talking with the Friendlies and Creep. About his idea not serving the group. And how this might be a good spot to stay. No-one drug that outta your mouth; you volunteered that shit."

"Shit, Merle, I just wanted him to come off the bigger asshole." Merle looked disbelieving. "OK fine, and I didn't exactly want to let him get a whole bunch of people killed. Don't mean I wanna spend the rest of my life with a single one of 'em."

"Maybe, maybe not. But it was something. You spent your whole life not saying boo to a goose, now all of a sudden you're coming up with ideas and sticking up for people." His voice rose in frustration. "And so am I, for Christ's sake. It fits us both about as well as a pair of skivvies with itching powder round the nuts, but that don't mean it's a bad thing."

"Don't make it good neither," Daryl sulked, his eyes making a brief, brave attempt to meet Merle's with some kind of conviction. "And I don't talk to people coz I don't wanna, not coz I can't."

"Bullshiiiit. Our daddy did a different kinda number on each of us; took away my ability to give a shit, took away your ability to say shit. So don't give me that. Why don't you just piss in my ear and tell me it's raining, too, brother?"

"I can speak my damn mind when I need to, fucker. Ever think that my ability to give a shit mighta got a little impaired along the way, too?" Daryl was pissed enough to turn to Merle full on instead of speaking from under a sideways glance as he usually did. He didn't get in Merle's face, but his tone was close enough.

"Nope," Merle said with a steady gaze. "You give a shit. About way too many things, and people, if you ask me."

"Well I didn't. And even if I did it'd still be the least messed up thing about me." Daryl glared at his brother, whose heart sank.

"I went and fucked things up for both of us a long time ago, and then I turned it into a habit. If I live to be a hundred I ain't ever gonna know all of what that did to you. But you gotta let me try-"

"Merle, you didn't-"

"Shut it. You know it's true. And it's got me thinking. I know this is the end of the world and all, but maybe things can be better than they were. Or maybe that's why they can be." Merle pressed the heels of his palms against his closed eyes until he saw stars.

"Better how? What's better than me and my brother having each other's backs?" spat Daryl, his fists clenching as he leant toward his brother. "Maybe I don't exactly _not_ care about these folks, but they ain't blood."

"No they ain't. But maybe we could hang around long enough to see if it could be better with people than without. It's been a fuckin' bizarre week so far; might as well keep the theme going," said Merle. "More people might draw more undead assholes, but it gives us the numbers to deal if the living become a problem, too."

"Bizarre is right. Just didn't think it could get any weirder." Daryl rocked back on his heels, hooking his thumbs into the pockets of his leather vest. "I guess maybe it would be an advantage if there's bigger groups out there. The two of us can handle a lot, but…" Daryl shifted his eyes to the side, leaving the rest unsaid. His brother just nodded. "It ain't gonna be easy, trying to work with these folks rather than just near 'em."

"I know that. But, brother, I'm tired. Tired enough to want a little something good for a while."

"I know the last few days have been a trial for ya, Merle-"

"I don't know that ya do." Merle leant against the side of the rig, taking a moment before looking back to his brother. "Getting cuffed to that roof was the least of it. I feel like Jonah sitting inside that whale. Something came along that's bigger than me and it feels warm and safe but it's freaking me out coz I don't know as I could get out of it if I wanted to. Sometimes I can't breathe, coz I find myself doing things that just ain't _me_."

"I noticed. Ain't never seen you sweet to someone like ya are to her. Especially when she was hurtin' just now. Didn't think you had it in you." Daryl squinted at his brother, searching his face as if trying to spot the thing he could point to and say 'Ha! That's what changed.'

"Me either. Half the time she makes me feel peaceful. Like..like I'm _done_, finished, past all the chores and tasks life has to throw at me. The rest of the time I'm damn near jumping outta my skin and wanting to run away from her."

"Maybe that's what it's supposed to feel like?" Daryl looked as confused as Merle felt. "It's not like you've ever spent more than one day in the same month with a woman before."

"Maybe. Can't exactly ask anyone about it."

"Well…maybe you could. Dale, maybe. Was married, so he'd know-"

"You take that back." Merle smacked Daryl hard enough around the head to leave him clutching that side with both hands.

"What in hell was that for? You crazy shit!" Daryl rocked on his feet as his ear rang with discordant white noise.

"Dixons don't ask advice about _girls_. Not no way, not no how. Don't you go suggesting that shit to me again." Merle's fist met the side of the rig. The side of his brother's head appreciated the change.

"Alright, Jesus, I get it. But, Merle, even I know that ain't no girl you got there. That's a full grown woman with a mind of her own and a streak of temper as wide as yours." He smirked at the fleeting look of pride he saw in his older brother's eyes.

"I still ain't asking. Never needed advice on the subject before and ain't starting now," Merle said indignantly. "What I was trying to say is for some reason this cool as fuck woman was willing to give me a shot. Fuck knows what was going through her head when she did it, but she did."

"You got that right," Daryl huffed, easily dodging the lazy blow that Merle sent at him.

"Might be that it's as strange for her as it is for me. But it's…I think it's a good thing. Why can't we do the same with the group?" Daryl nodded.

"How long you planning on keeping Ada around?" Daryl was genuinely curious, despite the fact that he did get the creeps from her a little. Not the same kind as some of the others in the camp gave him, but something about her bothered him immensely. It was like finding someone irritating without actually feeling annoyed and it was doing his head in.

"Don't know. She's stuck not being able to head North for at least a month. After that, well, I got no tether on her." For some reason, those words were some of the hardest to say in the whole weird conversation.

"Maybe you don't have one on her…but I'd bet my crossbow you'll feel more than a gentle tug if she tries to leave." Daryl smirked, awaiting the explosion.

"Did you just…oh HELL no. You did not just call me pussywhipped." Merle pounced on his brother, bearing him to the ground and punching whichever parts of him he could reach. "Take it back. You take that back right now or so help me-"

"Fuck no!" Daryl said through his laughter. "Hit me all you like but I ain't taking it back." They went round and round this argument for several minutes - much to the entertainment of several passing members of the camp - until Merle realised he wasn't going to win this time. He eased off and pushed Daryl's face in the mud before laying down on his back next to him, one arm across his chest, the other flung out to the side. Daryl kicked him once, then lay still.

"OK, how long do you want us to give this group shit a chance?" His voice was a little muffled.

"Don't know that either. Just…just dig in like you mean it. We'll figure out soon enough if it ain't a fit." Merle punched Daryl hard on his upper arm to get a reaction. It worked, but it wasn't the reaction he expected. Daryl heaved them both to their feet, then stood with his head down for a moment before he spoke.

"I thought you were…I didn't think I'd get you back. If staying with the group means it's less likely I'll have to think that again any time soon I'm for it." He looked at Merle sideways in the failing light, waiting for the sarcastic jibes. But it was his turn to be surprised. Merle met his eyes with surprising understanding, swallowing hard against his feelings.

"I'm trying. Didn't much like thinking I weren't gonna get back to you either. I'll try not to fuck this up, like I do everything else." He looked away from Daryl then, staring at the stars slowly appearing in the dark blue of the late evening sky. It didn't matter; just the fact that he'd said it shocked the hell out of the younger Dixon. "Maybe it's time we stopped thinking like we're still under the old man's thumb and start figuring out what thinking like just Daryl and Merle is like."

"Jesus, don't want much do you?" He caught Merle's glare and raised both hands. "OK, OK, I can do that. But don't think that means I ain't gonna make you share that bottle of Scotch I saw you hide in Ada's rig. You owe me for beating on me. Medicinal purposes and all that."

"Ah, Goddamnit, Daryl." Merle pushed his brother over on the ground again, but went to fetch the bottle just the same.

"And I mean share with everyone, not just me," Daryl shouted after him. The only response he got was the sound of something falling over heavily inside the rig. If Merle got a couple bruises out of that, he'd consider things even.

In another part of the camp, Jacqui was arguing heatedly with Rick and Shane while Lori looked on, trying not to take sides. She was bothered by the fact that her cowardice kept winning over her need to be honest with her husband. She wasn't thinking very highly of herself right now and emotional support while they thrashed out the issue of Jim wasn't enough to assuage her guilt.

"Have either of you even asked Jim what he wants?" Jacqui stood toe to toe with the two men, who were arguing again. "Have you? Have you looked that man in the eye and asked him if he wants to live through this pain or not?"

"Jacqui, he has a fever of a hundred and five; he's not in a position to know-" Rick

"Don't you say that to me. Don't you dare. If that's true then he is the only one here who is in a position to decide what's right for him."

"Hear that, Rick, you should have let Dixon stick him with the-" Shane started, stepping up to Rick, one finger jabbing to make his point.

"And don't you start; you're just as wrong as he is." Jacqui turned on Shane and pinned him with a fierce gaze. "Daryl tried to take his life and Rick here tried to keep it for him. And all both of them did was take away the last choice he may have in this world."

"And what if he asks us to help him end it? What then?" asked Rick.

"If that's what he wants then you can damn well spare him a bullet, not a pickaxe." Shane had the decency to look a little ashamed.

"You can't ask someone to…to put him down, for Christ's sake. He's not a dog. No-one should have to live with-" sputtered Rick.

"No-one should have to live with what we've already been through. But we do, every day. We might not have even been meant to survive all of this. But we did." Jacqui threw up her hands in frustration, although neither of the men missed the deep pain that flashed across her face for a moment. Shane knew she had been struggling greatly with the loss of her family. Some days were worse for her than others, and on those days, having the others in the group to look after was the only thing that brought her out the other side.

"Jacqui, I know this is already a shitty, shitty situation for all of us. But if no-one's willing to take that step, we have to respect that, too." Rick had to reach behind him to grasp Lori's offered hand. "We're talking about euthanasia here. Please understand we can't take it lightly, even if there were a gentle way of doing it, which there isn't."

"Daryl already tried to kill him, so there's one volunteer. And I'd be a second. It goes against everything my church taught me, but so does watching him suffer if he wants to be at peace." Jacqui's arm dropped to her sides, a feeling of defeat flooding her until Shane looked at his best friend.

"She's right, Rick. We have to ask Jim what he wants." Shane rubbed a hand over the back of his neck thoughtfully. "Whatever his decision, it's still his to make. He's the one who's bit. If he can live with it, or not as the case may be, then we sure as hell can find some balls and do the same."

"That's all I ask. Talk to him. Please."

"Alright, Jacqui, we will. If nothing else, it's probably knocking around inside his head anyway, and he shouldn't be alone while it is, even if he has to be alone in the decision." Rick patted Jacqui's arms gently, and took her hands in his. "I don't mean to upset anyone with my take on this. I just know that this could be the first, the precedent, in a long line of decisions just like it."

"You want to be sure, I know that. I just know that he deserves to be sure, too. We owe him that."

"We do," said Shane, "and we'll give him the choice without making him feel like it's a burden to us, I promise."

"He's sitting with the others at the fire right now. Didn't want to be alone. Maybe we could join them and talk to him afterwards?" Jacqui nodded to the campfire, which had slowly become surrounded with the other members of the camp. Rick nodded and slipped his hand back in Lori's as she stood and the four of them walked over tot he others.

The Dixon brothers were passing cups around, and each of them found a finger of Scotch pressed into their hands, with varying degrees of amity. Only Jacqui's shaking hands earned a second glance from the surly older brother and an extra finger poured into her cup. They all noticed that Jim's cup was being kept topped up at all times, and he was smiling giddily despite the fever. It would be worse later, a lot worse, but for now a drink in his hand and a circle of friends was the best they could offer him.

**Merle POV**

When they reached the bed in the truck's cabin, slightly fizzed from the bottle of excellent Scotch that had gone further than expected and been enjoyed by all, Merle had to reluctantly pry Ada's fingers from his waistband. She looked at him fuzzily and he stroked her hair behind her ears, cupping her cheeks in his palms. _Ah, woman, you make it so hard to refuse you anything. But after your storytelling earlier, I don't think either of us are up to this_.

"Not now, darlin'. I think we're both feeling a little too…dark. C'mere" He pulled her clothes off gently, then his own, and pulled her under the bedclothes with him. "I'm glad we took the time to unwind before bed. Even though I didn't get as much of that Scotch as I wanted." She giggled.

"I did notice you were finding it harder to part with as the level went down." He felt her hands slip around his waist to his back to sit there where they bled her body's heat into his skin.

"Maybe just a little." He dipped his head to kiss her softly. "I know it took a lot out of you telling your story earlier. It took almost as much out of me to go through it with you. I need to just lay a while before I can let you touch me, honey." _I feel too raw to take you or be taken. Please understand_.

Three different expressions seemed to pass over her features without any hint as to which one was the more dominant. To his relief he saw understanding, which he came close to taking for granted by now, as tuned into what was inside him as she so often was. Sorrow was only to be expected, her memories would be an uncovered wound for days yet.

He had no way of knowing what the third was, but whatever it was locked her eyes to his for a long, drawn out beat, before the smallest of smiles lifted the corners of her lips. It seemed a strange combination of pride and satisfaction. _Maybe I went and said something right again. Have to ask her what it was so I can do it again. Heh_.

He felt her hands find his face and hold him in front of her, felt the electric trembling of her coming over skin that flushed with gooseflesh, felt the newness of her mouth kissing him with such a tender passion he thought his heart would split in two; it seemed too small to hold the enormity of the emotions her lips wrung from him. As they closed their eyes to drift, limbs boneless and tangled, he tasted the salty tremors of those lips against his, little oceans of tears that weren't hers.

Merle awoke several times in the night, anxious hands searching for Ada. He didn't try to explain the frantic thudding in his chest, or the split second where he worried she wouldn't be there when he reached for her. He knew each time that he held her to him more tightly than was comfortable, but she tolerated it without protest. Her own nightmares punctuated their rest with soft sounds of distress and restless limbs, although it was only his own troubles that would wake her.

At some point he woke her to take his comfort in her, joining their bodies without a word, sweetly, hungrily, having to read her body like Braille in the total darkness. But the next time he awoke he couldn't tell the difference between memory and dream and had to slip his fingers between her swollen lips to prove that the soft concerto of her sighs had not been a figment of his imagination.

_Hmmm, real alright. I can smell myself on you, in you. Why does it feel like I've wanted that forever when I've spent a life never once thinking it?_

Another nightmare set upon her then, making the muscles in her thighs jump and her breathing deepen. He nuzzled at her breasts, taking the pebbled nipples gently in his teeth while he stroked slowly between her legs. Her wetness and his own mingled on his fingertips as he teased the small bundle of nerves there, making it swell and tighten against his touch. The sharp, musky scent of their union coupled with the feel of her slippery inner flesh caused his cock to harden painfully.

He eased her onto her side and pulled her leg back over his own, sliding his cock into her tight heat from behind and taking the back of her neck gently but firmly between his teeth as her hips pressed back against him unconsciously. _Even sleeping there's no part of her that doesn't want me_. She slept on, as he intended, but the agonisingly slow, deep penetration coupled with his fingers squeezing and pulling on her clit soon sent shudders through her, chasing away the nightmares.

He stopped moving when she came, closing his eyes to relish every ripple and contraction of her inner muscles where she gripped him, vicelike. With his forehead against the back of her neck, his tongue flicking over the small beads of sweat he found there, and his cock still rock hard and lodged deep within Ada's body, Merle allowed himself to go back to his dreams.

_What in hell's wrong with me that I'd rather have her hold me this completely than get my rocks off? Need's dangerous. I ain't built to want more for someone else than for myself…_

The sensation of her body surrounding him was the last thing he knew as he fell asleep, his heartbeat vacillating between soothing thrum and anxious staccato.

Still an hour before sunrise, he rose and left the rig's cabin, walking down to the treeline to stare into the inky darkness that wrapped around the trunks. He could feel the way they pulled at him and he stood with his hands clenched at his sides, humming with energy as he fought the urge to walk into the woods and take solace among the trees. After three days of newness and Ada, he was overfull with having shown so much caring and felt like he would jump out of his skin.

_It ain't that I don't feel a need for her far beyond sex. I ain't stupid enough to think that's all it is. But I need me, too, and I've been…outside of myself, in some sweeter place, for days. Half of me wants to run to her, but the other half wants to get as far away from her as possible_.

He took an option halfway between the two and made his way to his brother's tent, stopping at the rig to slip blades into sheaths at his hips and to borrow Ada's bow. He considered tickling Daryl with the tip of the longbow to see if he'd slap himself in the face, but settled for poking him with it until he opened sleepy eyes.

"Merle…whah…th'fuck….'s still dark," he muttered as he tried to wake up.

"Rise and shine, Darleena. We're going hunting."

"Are you…it's dark!" _Can't get anything past you, baby brother_.

"And we can both hunt blindfolded just as well as we can in broad daylight, you know that. Dark ain't gonna make no difference. C'mon, time's wasting." He rapped his brother sharply upside the head with the bow and ducked his head back out of the tent to wait for him.

He could hear a lot of cursing and bumping around from inside the tent while Daryl dressed. As he turned to cock an ear to his surroundings he felt the sharp jab of a crossbow bolt in his side and rounded on his brother with a warning hiss.

"Hey! Quit it."

"Serves you right. Jesus, Merle, you're fuckin' jumpy as a cat."

Merle just grunted and slapped him on the back to signal that he should follow him into the woods. He did, the noises of the branches scraping against Merle's leather vest telling him the height at which they'd smack him in the face. He wove like a boxer in the dark, managing to avoid most of them. But, of course, every once in a while Merle would ping one silently at him on purpose. It took almost half an hour of trudging before Daryl wised up to him.

"You'd no intention of hunting, did you?" Merle heard his brother's footsteps stop and forced his own to do the same. _You never were as dumb as you looked, Darleena_.

"I wouldn't go that far. Something tasty comes along I'll kill it." Daryl said nothing and Merle felt forced to find more words to explain why they were standing in the pitch black woods. "Needed the trees. Needed you."

"Something happen?" Daryl moved closer to the sound of his brother's laboured breathing.

"Been happening since Friendly left me on that roof. I'm falling, and there's things I need to say, should've said a long time ago." Daryl remained silent and Merle leaned over, bracing one hand against his knee and the other against a tree he couldn't see.

"I know how Glenn felt earlier. Feels like my chest's gonna bust open with all the thinking it's doing."

"Well I ain't got a tub to dunk you in so get a fuckin' grip already."

"It wasn't fair. What I said to you before." _And most of everything for the forty years before that_.

"Huh?"

"When you asked me about the drugs-"

"What about them?"

"Well you asked why I ain't had any more and-"

"You gonna get some?"

"Fer Christ's sake, stop asking questions and _listen_. I won't be able to say this once the sun comes up." His brother said nothing further. "I'm sorry, OK? I'm a sorry bastard and it wasn't fair what I said. About not getting any more coz Ada makes me want to be a better man."

"Why? Not that I disagree any about the sorry old bastard part." _Fucker_.

"I never said old!" Merle cuffed his brother around the ear. "Anyway, you're my blood. I should have wanted to be better for you. And long before now. And all the time between then and now. I'm sorry, brother."

"Yeah, well, thinking about other people ain't exactly ever been your strong point."

"I thought plenty, just didn't do nothin' about it." _Got a real talent for that, I reckon_.

"What's got you this close to the edge? You seemed fine when we were passing that bottle around last night." Any other time, Merle might have batted away the hand his brother placed on his shoulder. But he left it there, a small comfort in the dark.

"This thing with her and me, it's gonna swallow me whole. And I think if I wanted to stop it, I should have done it a couple days back." He rocked the crown of his skull against the tree trunk, the pressure lending some small support to his control.

"I reckon." Daryl thought for a moment. "You don't sound awful sorry about it."

"It doesn't scare me. But I feel…resentful. I got no control in this. And I got no idea what I'm gonna be when it spits me out the other side."

"Less of a shitstick asshole?"

"Heh. Maybe."

"Do you love her?"

"No." Daryl could hear his brother swiping a hand across the stubble on his cheeks and chin. "But I will."

* * *

><p><strong>Why does my writing muse always show up at 1AM when it knows damn well I won't be able to see typos until at least 9AM? : Leave me some love. Or at least a little perving.**


	15. Chapter 15 - Learning curve

**Servitude**

Copyright© D. A. Bathory 2014

Walking Dead characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

**Merle/OC pairing. Sorry for the delay. Half my fault for getting sidetracked with a one shot. Other half also my fault for realising this thing was gonna be a lot bigger than I thought and needing to do some planning out so the continuity didn't get screwed up in future chapters.**

**Thanks to a review from enchantmentanjel, I've changed a little at the beginning of chapter thirteen. They pointed out that it was a bit confusing what was going on so there's now a short lead in which I hope makes it a bit clearer.**

**Songs for this chapter:**

**Katie Herzig - I hurt too**

**Doves - There goes the fear**

**Chapter 15 - Learning curve**

**Narrative POV**

"What's he doing?" asked Glenn, rubbing dirt from his hands absentmindedly onto his pants as he sat down next to the youngest Dixon.

"He's building a fence," said Daryl, fascinated.

"Why?"

"The horses need one and she ain't awake yet. Think it's meant to be a surprise."

"No, I mean, why is he doing it at all?"

"I think it's his version of bringing her flowers. He's still too much old Merle to be doing that, but there's just enough new Merle he can't not do it. So my brother, he's building her a fence."

"It's a good fence."

"I'd have put that post a couple feet to the right. It's gonna end up uneven on one side."

"I don't think she'll care." Glenn chuckled under his breath.

"Don't be too sure, man. That woman suffers from a severe lack of bullshit." Daryl shook his head, as if that were something he hadn't encountered before. But of course he had, in his brother. He might talk out of his ass a lot, and he could be savage and unpredictable, but one thing Merle wasn't prone to doing was bullshitting you.

"Well, time to find out," muttered Glenn as Ada dropped from the door of the rig and made her way over to Merle.

They saw him glance up and tilt his chin at her before going back to banging the post into the hole he'd dug. Daryl noticed the way his whole frame twitched for a second. He was still struggling with whatever it was or wasn't between he and Ada.

She walked up to Merle, squinting at him against the low morning sun before turning a hundred and eighty degrees to stand at his side. Her arms hung relaxed at her sides and she made no move to touch him.

"Smart," Daryl whispered under his breath. She must have had an inkling that his brother was feeling a little edgy. He stopped working while Ada looked over what he'd done so far. They both stood unmoving and not speaking until Merle finally gave in. Daryl chuckled as his brother reached out with just the knuckle of one finger to stroke the back of her hand. She returned the touch, moving the back of her hand languorously in his palm before bumping his hip with her own and turning to him.

"What're you doing?"

"Makin' a fence," grunted Merle, as though that should have been perfectly goddamn obvious.

"Are you sure? Coz it looks like you're trying to rape the ground with a stick." She poked an elbow into his side but his hand shot out and caught hold of her wrist, instead tucking it against his side, their fingers curled under. "That post needs to be a foot or two to the right."

"I'm building yer fence, woman, what're you complaining for?"

"Wasn't it you who said 'if you want something done right, ask a Dixon'?" She hid a smile, having heard those exact words out of his mouth only the day before. "So do it right, Dixon."

She turned to walk away, the way her palm splayed on his chest looking for all the world as good as a kiss. She nodded to Glenn and Daryl as she reached them.

"I'm going to take Thunderchild out to look for supplies in a little while. Either of you want me to keep an eye out for anything in particular?"

"Not getting bit. Anything else is a bonus," Daryl muttered, not looking at her.

"Wouldn't mind some new t-shirts if you come across any. But like he said," Glenn nodded at the younger Dixon. "Coming back in one piece is more important than stuff."

"You gonna take anyone with you?" asked Daryl, squinting at Ada from under his hair.

"Yup."

"Who?" Her only answer was a crooked smile and the sight of her back as she wandered off.

"Your brother going to be OK with her going off without him?"

"Ain't you got somethin' better to be doing? Why so concerned with my family all of a sudden?" Daryl barked, uncomfortable with the interest from an outsider.

"Hey, man, I was just asking. Your brother…scares the shit out of me. But he helped me yesterday. And I didn't like what happened in Atlanta. If I'd known they weren't bringing him, I'd have stayed and argued to let him out of-"

"You'd have stayed? Is that what you reckon? That you'd have grown a pair and fought to keep a Dixon safe? Boy, you're talking out of your-"

"I would." Glenn's eyes were hard. "I'm not saying I'd have wanted to. I just…fuck…" It was interesting watching the kid gather his thoughts; every one of them washed over his face clear as day before they made it to his brain. When he glanced back at Daryl again he looked resigned to brutal honesty.

"I'm scared of…almost everything, and I hate confrontation; it upsets me and I'm not very good at it. But what scares me more than those…those _things_ or getting in a fight is us losing what's left of our humanity. So no, I wouldn't have left him if I could have helped it."

Glenn stood quickly and walked off, leaving Daryl to wonder how the fuck he'd missed the kid having the beginnings of a set of balls all this time. He'd always thought you could tell the size of a man by the size of the things that bothered him. And now that he thought about it, the Chinaman - _Korean, he's Korean_ - put up with a lot of shit.

In the time he and Merle had been with the group, he'd seen them all happy to send Glenn through a tight space, or set him out in the open to get the attention of the undead so they could make an escape, or have him sit guard on supplies alone while they searched for more. And when they weren't making him he was volunteering for that shit. And Daryl had never once heard him complain.

He was quiet, a follower not a leader, but he wasn't a bitcher, even when things went south, and he had no concept of his own courage. The only thing that worried him was them losing their humanity? That wasn't a small thing to bother a man.

"You know, you could help instead of just sitting there watching, _brother_." Merle's rasping voice dragged Daryl out of his thoughts. He heaved himself up and jogged over to his brother, who was digging a new post hole two feet to the right of the existing one. He eyed him with a knowing grin. Merle just cuffed him around the head and shoved the post into his hands.

"Not a fuckin' word," he snarled.

**Merle POV**

_Fuckin' asshole. I know damn well he's got his head down so I can't see him laughing_.

Merle 'accidentally' almost knocked Daryl's feet out from under him with another post, earning him a glare.

"Less laughing, more working," Merle directed, narrowing his eyes at his younger brother, who took a step toward him, his own post raised to smack Merle.

They ceased their bickering when they heard crying, turning in time to see Sophia emerge from the trees at a run, her hands, arms and chest covered in bright, fresh blood.

_Shit shit shit. Is she bit? There's so much fuckin' blood_.

"Sophia!" Merle called out. She heard him and changed direction. He dropped the post and stooped down just in time for her to reach him and throw her arms around his neck, hugging him and sobbing uncontrollably.

Merle didn't know what the fuck to do. Little girls didn't just go around hugging guys like him. Hell no-one went around hugging him, except Ada, and that was taking some getting used to.

_Jesus, she's got a tight grip. Wouldn't mind some oxygen there, kid_.

He could see Daryl's amusement at his obvious discomfort with the girl's embrace, even though he was still clutching the post like a weapon, not knowing if she'd been bitten or not. It wasn't until Merle felt a brief prick on his shoulder blade that he realised Sophia was holding a bloody hunting knife.

"Daryl, take the blade off her before she stabs one of us with it." He gestured with his head and Daryl prised the hilt out from between her small fingers.

Merle tried to stand up and ease away from the girl, but she just wrapped her legs around him and came with him, still crying and attached as firmly as a limpet.

"I d-didn'-didn't m-_mean_ to," she wailed.

_Oh Christ, it's too late; she's gone and stabbed someone already_.

"What didn't you mean to, Sophia? What did you do, girl?" Merle asked gruffly, looking to Daryl for help and getting none. He had no idea what to do to make her get down so he patted her awkwardly on the back with his large hands.

"It w-wasn't my fault," she snuffled. "She s-snuck up on m-me." This started a fresh bout of sobbing.

Merle froze when she said 'she', his mind automatically going to Ada. Galvanised by worry, he found the strength to gently but firmly prise her limbs from around his neck and waist, setting her down on the ground but keeping a grip on both her shoulders.

"Sophia," he said a little roughly. "If you can't calm down enough to tell us what happened then you need to show us."

The girl nodded, her tears not ceasing as she gripped his hand and pulled. He let her pull him along behind her and into the trees, soon moving at a loping run and dodging low branches. Daryl brought up the rear, having traded the post he'd been holding for Sophia's knife, which he'd wiped as much blood off as he could. They could both see the clear tracks where she'd ran back to camp, and smears of bright blood on some of the tree trunks.

_With this much blood on her and them trees and the ground, whoever it was ain't gonna be breathing when we find them._

It was a longer journey into the woods than Merle had expected, and he wondered why she'd gone so far away from the camp. He'd have to ask later, but for now he just needed to see that it wasn't Ada who'd been hurt. The trees thinned out in places and thickened in others, to the point that, when Sophia finally let them slow, it was gloomy enough to find it difficult to make out the dark shape lying on the ground, half propped against a tree.

They walked around to the other side of it where it was clearer to see and his heart eased a little. Sophia's sobs, unfortunately, did not.

"I killed B-Bambi," she cried, her small shoulders shaking and her breath hitching, threatening to turn into hiccoughs.

_That ain't fuckin' Bambi. Size of that thing, camp'll get fed for almost a week, maybe even have some left over to dry_.

Daryl knelt down next to the fallen doe, looking closely at the animal. From this angle Merle could see the many stab wounds and ruined face and head without getting any closer.

"Shit, girl, you did a number on this thing. How much more fuckin' dead did it need to be?" asked Daryl, scratching his head as he regarded the blood soaked girl. He was shocked at the apparent ferocity with which the wounds had been inflicted on the animal. Ironically, this was the thing that snapped Sophia out of her crying fit.

"I didn't want her dead at all," she said crossly, wiping at her face with bloody hands. All she managed to do was make herself look more like a savage than she already had. "She came up behind me and I thought she was a walker so I just stabbed her." Her face crumpled but she managed to keep the tears at bay this time.

"Where the hell did you get a knife like this anyway?" asked Merle.

"Mom gave it to me, and I think Officer Shane gave it to her. She wanted me to be safe if we got attacked again." Her face twisted for a moment as she remembered the attack on the camp two nights ago.

_Smart lady. Wouldn't have credited her with the balls to touch a knife, let alone give one to her little girl_.

"But why'd you go all Freddie Krueger on it?" Daryl chipped in.

"Huh?" Well it was probably a good thing she'd never gotten the chance to watch those movies.

"Why'd you stab it so much, kid?"

"The first one was an accident, and I'd never done it before so it wasn't that hard. It hurt her real bad but it didn't kill her. I just needed to make her die quickly before she could run off. I didn't want her walking around hurting."

_Damn. Kid's got some balls on her, I'll give her that_.

Daryl cocked his head to one side, looking at her long and hard, while Merle squatted down in front of her. He wasn't too sure about how to comfort a girl, but he'd done it enough with Daryl when he was little so he did the same now and took one of her hands in his, trying to smile without looking meaner.

"Now listen here, girl. What happened was an accident. And you did what was least cruel for the animal afterwards. And that's what makes a good hunter. I'm-I'm proud of you, OK? We both are." Daryl nodded when Merle looked at him for encouragement.

"You did good, Sophia. It ain't right for an animal to suffer." Daryl's idea of comfort was a little less wordy than Merle's but sincere nonetheless.

"I-I did?" She looked surprised at the revelation that she hadn't just not done something bad, something she'd be punished for, but had done the right thing. Both men nodded.

_What in hell kinda effect did that man have on his little girl to make her so scared of doing something wrong? She wasn't just upset about killing it; she thought us grownups was gonna get our panties in a bunch over it_.

"I'd have done the same thing," said Daryl seriously, picking up on the same vibe Merle had. They both knew from experience what it was like to feel you could do nothing but wrong all the time. "Hell I have done the same thing, a hundred times over. Even the best marksman in the world don't always kill with the first shot. Sometimes I've had to spend two or three hours tracking a wounded animal just so I could put it out of its misery." He gestured at the deer.

"And that's not all," said Merle, getting into it. "This will feed the whole camp for days, likely a week. I know you didn't plan to, but you've provided food for your mom and all your friends. You got a right to be proud of that, too, and I'm sure they'll be thankful for it."

It was a little wobbly, but a small, self satisfied smile spread across Sophia's face and she nodded.

"Thanks, Mr Merle."

"It's just Merle," he said, uncomfortable with her gratitude.

"OK," she said in a small voice, her eyes wide and slightly awed.

_Shit. I think I just made friends with a twelve year old._

**Narrative POV**

In the RV Jacqui was tending to Jim with a cold washcloth, wiping away the sweat than ran down his face in rivulets. He'd not spoken for several hours except for a few delirious and disjointed words that had made no sense to her but apparently bothered him immensely, his brow furrowing tightly over closed eyes.

"He's slipping in and out," she muttered to Andrea, who was sitting silently and had been for the last four hours, her eyes staring out of the window at nothing. She received no answer, not even a turn of the head.

"Honey, you need to get out of here. You need something to put your back into so your brain can take a break. Andrea?" Andrea turned and looked at her without speaking as if she hadn't understood what she'd said. But just as she was about to repeat it, she gave a small nod and stood up with difficulty.

Andrea turned to the door, not stretching although her stiff muscles and joints were obviously bothering her. Perhaps the pain of losing her sister was so great that physical pain meant very little to her at present.

Jacqui was relieved to watch the other woman exit the vehicle. Mostly because she knew that witnessing Jim's decline on top of her sister's would be too much, but also because she needed to speak to him without witnesses if possible. Rick and Shane had tried to speak to him the previous night about the choices before him, but the whisky had left him only able to give them a garbled 'Hell yeah, I wanna live'. They all knew he'd been too euphoric to be able to take him at his word, and so had decided to wait until today to talk again.

"Jim," she whispered, touching his shoulder gently, then shaking a little when she got no response. "Jim!" He stirred and his head flopped from side to side as he struggled to open his eyes.

"D-Donna, is that you?" he mumbled, still half out of it.

"No, hon, it's Jacqui. You're at the quarry; do you remember?" She watched his face as he remembered that his wife was gone, along with his two boys. He nodded slowly, his face stricken. She almost wished she'd let him keep his delusion. "How do you feel?"

"Like I played chicken with a semi and lost. Is that the fever or the whisky? I know damn well there was whisky."

"Mmm, probably a little of both. Not sure if the whisky was a good idea, but it was good seeing you happy." He just nodded again, gathering his thoughts.

"How much longer do I have left now?"

"We're not sure, two, maybe three days."

"That's the same as they said my boy David had when he was born. I'm so sorry, Mr Harris, two or three days is all we can expect for him. But he showed them, fought like hell for fourteen weeks before they gave him the all clear. He sure didn't get that from me; his mama was the same, hell on wheels."

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit, Jim. Couples work in tandem; she probably drew a lot of her strength from you and you didn't even realise."

"Maybe, maybe. I think that day was the closest I'd seen her to being broken, though. She didn't let the baby see it, and maybe that's why he survived, but I could. I think if he'd have had a different personality she'd have turned into one of those mothers who worries about the world and kept him from it."

"He didn't let her?"

"No, ma'am. She'd try to coddle him but even as a baby he was stubborn. When he got old enough to talk, well his first word was 'no'. That says a lot about how things went from there." Jacqui laughed.

"That was my daughter's first word, too. I was trying to make her wear a dress at the time. Ended up going to her first birthday party in dungarees and a couple handfuls of mud."

"Oh I think my David would have liked her. He was the same, wouldn't be told no but once he learnt it he used nothing but for another two months. Donna'd try her best to keep him safe and he'd just bulldoze over her and go do whatever it was anyway. Made a few trips to the ER because of it, too."

"What happened?" Jacqui refreshed the water on the cloth and wiped at his face again where beads of sweat had started to group and roll.

"What didn't?" He chuckled. "He burned himself on the stove once, and fell out of a tree and broke his collar bone. Gouged his legs something terrible climbing the wall into our neighbour's garden to pick peaches. Which were green, so by the time we got to the hospital he'd emptied his stomach all over the floor of the car several times over." He smiled at the memory.

"It's probably good our kids didn't meet. I have a feeling they'd have gotten into a lot more trouble together than they did apart."

"What was your daughter's name?"

"Lisha. It was after her grandma, and she hated it for years, until her grandma passed away. After that, she kinda kept it close, like it was a part of her that she didn't want to lose. How old was David when he…when you left Atlanta?"

"He was twelve. His brother was nine. A more opposite child to the one we already had we couldn't have imagined. He was quiet and thoughtful, wanted nothing more in the world than to please his mama."

"Let me guess, he was an unwilling participant in a lot of David's adventures?"

"Not as unwilling as you'd think. Don't think it ever occurred to him even once not to go with his brother, whatever trouble it was they were heading for. He'd always try to talk him out of it, but there was a bond there you'd have to see to believe. The Dixon brothers remind of them, now that I think of it."

"I hope you're joking. A more foul mouthed pair I've never come across." Jim laughed hard enough to bring a hand to his chest as it turned into a cough.

"Not that part. But tell me you don't see it. Those two have something under the surface that nothing can touch. They don't really exist as a whole without the other. And for all that they fight, they'd die for each other, I know that."

"Maybe I do. Can't say either of them are my favourite people, but I know what you mean. They're opposites, alright; Daryl's quiet as you like, will barely talk, and Merle, well that man couldn't shut up if his life depended on it. But they're two halves of the same coin, all the same."

"I always thought that about me and Donna. Two halves of the same coin. We'd been married for three years before I realised just how lucky I was to have found her. And I could never decide between feeling guilty that it took me that long, or focusing on feeling so proud that I'd somehow done whatever I'd done that made her want to stay with me."

"You miss them." It wasn't a question.

"So do you."

Jacqui nodded and gripped his hand tightly. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't feel guilty for still being here when her husband and daughter weren't. She tried not to think of it in terms of fair; the world hadn't been fair to begin with and had just gotten meaner. Here they were, trying to salvage something from it, but they were so scattered, and so many of them had lost their entire families. That feeling almost of being left behind while others went on ahead was becoming so prevalent that conversations about it had ceased. It wasn't easy trying to recreate the world when you felt like a bunch of orphans.

**Merle POV**

Daryl bled and gutted the animal quickly with Sophia's knife; they were far enough out in the woods that it made sense to leave the entrails and remaining blood out here and not bring them back to camp. He looked up from the deer and saw Sophia's interest as she watched him work with the knife.

_She ain't squeamish; ain't that something_.

"You wanna learn how to butcher it right, kid?" asked Daryl. She nodded eagerly and he looked up at Merle. "Might as well do it here and just take back what can be eaten."

"Yeah. It'll save a second trip to get rid of the bones. Might as well lay it on that big shirt the kid's wearing; it's covered with blood anyhow." He gestured at the large, plaid shirt which had obviously been her father's, swamping her small frame.

Sophia shrugged off the shirt without being told and held it out to Daryl.

"Clean your hands on a bunch of them damp leaves and then wipe them on the shirt. Can't be nice standing there with blood everywhere," Daryl said gruffly, waiting until she'd done so before taking the bloodied fabric from her.

Merle shoved the mound of entrails away from them with his foot while his brother shifted the deer onto the shirt he'd spread on the ground. He looked up at Sophia and pointed at the ground they were standing on.

_Might as well teach her right if we're gonna do this_.

"If you ever do this and want to use the hide, do it on ground like this, soft with not many stones, so it don't tear the skin." She nodded, hanging on every word.

"Do we want to use the hide?" she asked.

"Not really. Not to keep anyways," answered Daryl from where he sat cross-legged on the ground. "But we need something to carry the meat back in so I'm gonna keep it intact anyway."

She watched closely while Daryl peeled away the skin, being concise with his commentary but making sure she understood what he was doing and why. He got a good amount of the hide off the legs so they'd be able to tie up the bundle of meat once they were finished.

"This bit's gonna sound weird," he said as he gripped one of the hind legs firmly. But Sophia's nose only wrinkled a fraction as he snapped the hip out of joint. He nodded in approval. "See, you don't need to cut through many bones doing this, not when you can just pop the joint out of the socket and only have to cut the meat."

"That makes sense."

"You have a go here," he said, handing her the knife and positioning her hand on the leg. "You wanna hold the leg steady, and get a feel for where the joint's separated. Cut there, _slowly_ so you know you're on the right path."

Sophia made a shallow cut, getting a feel for how easily the knife cut through the tissue, then made a bolder one, stopping to prod her fingertips into the muscle to feel the knob of the joint where it floated freely away from its socket.

"Cut those near the bone when you can," said Merle, pointing at the muscle attachments that cemented the ends of muscles to the bones. "It'll save you cutting through the meat and leave the whole muscle intact. Keep an eye out for anything that'll make the job cleaner or more efficient."

"Efficient means faster, right?" Sophia looked up at him, pausing her butchery of the deer for a moment.

_Curious little thing, aintcha? Smart though_.

Merle didn't think of it in so many words, but it made something deep inside him feel proud and useful when she assumed so easily that he was someone smart enough to answer whatever questions she might have. He was, of course, exactly that, he was just used to people assuming he was nothing more than a dumb redneck. That suited him just fine for the most part; being underestimated when you were one of the smartest motherfuckers around was damn useful. But there was nothing wrong with enjoying the girl's admiration.

"Kinda. It means getting the job done _well_ in the least amount of time, not just faster. You can hack it up any old how and be a lot quicker than this. But you get the best use out of the meat later if you do it the right way now."

"So keeping it tidy as well as quick is efficient?"

"Spot on, kid." She grinned and went back to slicing through the meat. She gave a little squeak of victory when the leg came away cleanly. They all laughed at the sound.

"Nice job. Ain't much damage to the meat at all," said Daryl, taking the leg from her gently and laying it down.

"You ain't big enough yet to do this part," he muttered, snapping the other hip out of joint. "But you'll get there. Practice and you'll be a pro with the butchering by the time you're strong enough." He laughed when he saw how excited she looked.

"You mean I can do this again?"

"Sure, kid, we'll teach ya. You gotta ask your momma if you wanna learn how to hunt properly, though."

"I…don't know. It didn't feel good killing that deer."

"It never does," said Merle. "A good hunter doesn't enjoy killing. But it's OK to take pride in doing it well. You learn tracking, too, which is useful. Me and Daryl'll teach ya that even if you don't want to kill stuff, OK?"

"Yes please." She nodded emphatically. He was pretty sure she'd come around to the idea of wanting to learn to hunt.

They patiently walked her through the process of butchering the rest of the deer, then parcelled it up neatly inside the hide. Daryl buried the unused parts and hoisted the hide over his shoulder.

"What say we go and get your war paint off, kid? We can help you get cleaned up and find some other clothes before your momma sees you like that." Sophia nodded and they set off back in the direction of Ada's rig.

**Narrative POV**

Ada found Rick down by the edge of the lake, looking out over the water as the sunlight moved across it and the shadows from the cliff shortened away. She sat down next to him and enjoyed the view for a few moments.

"I'm going out today, ostensibly for supplies for the horses as they need hay and straw. I'll likely come across the chance for other things, though; is there anything you want? Need to know what to keep an eye out for."

"Clothes would be good."

"Glenn said the same thing. Everyone in the same boat there?"

"Pretty much. The way we have to wash things now is hard on them, so they wear out quicker. Plus, there's only so much blood you can get out before they become unwearable."

"I'll bring some if I find anything. You know, you and Shane would look great in a couple of mankinis." She grinned at him.

Rick's look of surprise and deep, booming laugh were genuine. So was the slight shudder at the thought of Shane in one of those contraptions; there were prettier sights at the business end of a goat. He scrubbed at his eyes furiously with his knuckles until the chuckles - and mental images - subsided.

"I needed that."

"Think we both did."

"You going alone?" He shuffled his feet forwards to stretch his legs out in front of him, his eyes going back to the water. She was surprisingly comfortable to be around, considering their first meeting. But maybe that was it, he knew what she was about and didn't feel any kind of worry about what she might not be saying. He could find himself liking a person who didn't hold back much of what was on their mind.

"I was thinking of taking Andrea with me." Ada played with a blade of grass between her fingers, stretching it between her stiffened thumbs and blowing through it gently to make it whistle.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. There's not much we can give her in the way of hope right now-"

"I heard that."

"But we can give her something to do. Sometimes it's the only thing that helps, having a purpose, keeping busy. And, as harsh as it sounds, she has to get back on the horse. Literally, in this case." She laughed softly. "We've all got to keep going, and the faster she gets used to making her body work while her heart's in pieces, the safer she'll be."

"And stronger. She's got guts, anyway, that woman, or perhaps it's balls." He shrugged. "Like you I've only just met her, so I don't know what she's like for the most part, but I think she's got what it takes. She just doesn't want it to intrude on her grief right now."

"None of us want any of this, but we've got it," said Ada.

"I wouldn't say any. There are some silver linings here, thin as they may be."

"Such as?"

"The chance to make a new kind of friendship. I believe that taking care of each other makes us all better people. Maybe that will be the biggest and best thing that comes from all of this, that we start making more tightly knit communities."

"Maybe so. Maybe the groups of survivors will end up becoming more like extended family units than just groups of unrelated people."

"Will you be staying around long enough to see whether that happens with our group or not?" It was something a few of them had been wondering.

"I'm not sure. I had it all planned out, take my rig and my horses and head up to Canada to start over. Alone. Then I met Merle." She gave a big shrug as if to say 'and that was that'.

"That changed something as big as long term plans like that?"

"Maybe. I might not have thought so much about it if I hadn't ended up stuck here for at least a month by the new foal."

"So you're not exactly here because you want to be?"

"No, I wanted to come with Merle. I could have found somewhere by myself but chose to come here for now."

"Is your being here dependent on how things go with him?"

"At the moment, yes. If I stay long enough to be a part of the group then that might change, but for now he's the only reason."

"You and he…it seems…complicated."

"It's ass backwards is what it is." She laughed, looking at him sideways.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we started things the wrong way round." She ran a hand through her curls, trying to find the right words. "And now we have a chance to get to know each other. Whether that goes well or not is anyone's guess. He's not used to someone caring for him and I'm not used to having someone want to do things for me, things I can do myself, just because they want to please me."

"Oh…yeah…I understand that part. Lori damn near bit my head off the first time I tried to cook for her. Took a long time before she could get her head around the fact that I wasn't trying to take away her independence, just share things with her. She punished me for that one by rebuilding the front porch when she knew I'd spent a couple days working up to it. Used all my good planks, too." He scratched his head and frowned a little.

"That kinda surprises me. She seems so…genteel; I guess I made some assumptions. Still, not a bad thing to have a wife who's handy with tools."

"It is when you end up arguing over who gets the good hammer every time," he chuckled. "I know why someone would be surprised, but Lori grew up on a farm. One of the first skills she learnt was how to fix things. She's no mechanic, but she's great with wood."

"Perv." That got a chuckle out of him.

"Can I ask you something?" Ada nodded. "What do you see in Merle?" she considered the question with great seriousness for a moment before looking him in the eye with equal gravity.

"Everything." Rick regarded her silently, beginning to realise that although this woman didn't hold much back when it came to others, there was a great ocean of information about herself under the surface that she showed no-one unless prompted. It was refreshing; too many people were quick to overshare.

"Does he know that?"

"Baby steps, Rick, baby steps. This is not a man you push."

"No kidding." He packed away the walkie talkie he'd used earlier to try and contact Morgan. "I apologised to him yesterday for leaving him in Atlanta."

"I heard," she said evenly, looking at the ground.

"I guess I didn't give enough thought to the danger I put him, doing that."

"That's not why I hit you, you know." She looked up at him with a bright smile.

"It wasn't?" She shook her head. "Why then?"

"I don't know how long he'd been in withdrawal before you showed up and brained him, probably a couple days, but he was coming out the other side of it pretty well when I found him." Rick nodded; he was still kicking himself for not picking up on that. "He was just laid there with his face covered when I found him. He looked up at me and the one thing I expected to see in his eyes was anger, considering what I'd heard out of him when you guys were arguing, but it wasn't there."

"What did you see?"

"Hurt." Rick flinched. "He was hurt that you just left him there, tied up like some critter. His mom died when he and Daryl were really young. I'm guessing people leaving isn't his favourite thing."

"I guess I deserved that right hook." Ada nodded, smiling again.

"It was almost worth it, seeing everyone's faces," Rick laughed.

"Your wife was looking at me like I'd just committed sacrilege." Ada burst out laughing.

"Yeah, well, Dixon the younger seemed to appreciate it. I don't think either of those men have had a whole lot of appreciation from anyone except each other."

"And man do they have the strangest ways of showing it. They punch each other like other families give hugs."

"You'd want them on your side in a fight, though."

"Sure would. You know, given a chance, they might be the best people to have in your corner in this new world. If the group gives them room to be useful, I don't think they'll be sorry."

"They, not we?"

"It's early days yet."

"I hope you do stay. And I don't think anyone would want to see you go. You have plenty to offer and you're a good person-"

"I'm not." She shook her head, serious. "I want to be, and I try to behave like one, but I'm not one. I'm selfish where it counts. Don't get me wrong, I like it here, and the people, but at the moment with the exception of the two kids I'd still happily sacrifice everyone but Merle and Daryl if it came to it."

"I appreciate the honesty. But I stand by what I said." Rick got to his feet and tipped his hat to shield his eyes from the sun. "Let me know how it goes with Andrea on the run."

"Will do." Ada nodded, seeing Dale hurrying toward Rick before walking off to find Andrea in camp.

* * *

><p><strong>Well there's more, but had to break it there so it didn't turn into some kind of goliath chapter. Let me know what you thought. Or what your favourite pizza topping is. Both are equally interesting :D<strong>


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